Some of the many different codes of football.

Football is the name given to a number of different team sports. The most popular of these world-wide is association football (also known as soccer). The English language word "football" is also applied to American football (also known as gridiron), Australian rules football, Canadian football, Gaelic football, rugby football (rugby league and rugby union), and related games. Each of these codes (specific sets of rules, or the games defined by them) is referred to as "football".

These games involve:

• a large spherical or prolate spheroid ball, which is itself called a football.
• a team scoring goals and/or points, by moving the ball to an opposing team's end of the field and either into a goal area, or over a line.
• the goal and/or line being defended by the opposing team.
• players being required to move the ball mostly by kicking and — in some codes — carrying and/or passing the ball by hand.
• goals and/or points resulting from players putting the ball between two goalposts.
• offside rules, in most codes, restricting the movement of players.
• in some codes, points are mostly scored by players carrying the ball across the goal line.
• in most codes players scoring a goal must put the ball either under or over a crossbar between the goalposts.
• players in some codes receiving a free kick after they take a mark/make a fair catch.

Peoples from around the world have played games which involved kicking and/or carrying a ball, since ancient times. However, most of the modern codes of football have their origins in England.

Etymology

"a football", in the sense of a ball rather than a game, was first mentioned in 1486.^[7] This reference is in Dame Juliana Berners' Book of St Albans. It states: "a certain rounde instrument to play with ...it is an instrument for the foote and then it is calde in Latyn 'pila pedalis', a fotebal."^[6]

a pair of football boots was ordered by King Henry VIII of England in 1526.^[8]

women playing a form of football was in 1580, when Sir Philip Sidney described it in one of his poems: "[a] tyme there is for all, my mother often sayes, When she, with skirts tuckt very hy, with girles at football playes."^[9]

the first references to goals are in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. In 1584 and 1602 respectively, John Norden and Richard Carew referred to "goals" in Cornish hurling. Carew described how goals were made: "they pitch two bushes in the ground, some eight or ten foote asunder; and directly against them, ten or twelue [twelve] score off, other twayne in like distance, which they terme their Goales".^[10] He is also the first to describe goalkeepers and passing of the ball between players.

the first direct reference to scoring a goal is in John Day's play (performed circa 1600; published 1659): "I'll play a gole at camp-ball" (an extremely violent variety of football, which was popular in East Anglia). Similarly in a poem in 1613, Michael Drayton refers to "when the Ball to throw, And drive it to the Gole, in squadrons forth they goe".

Calcio Fiorentino

An illustration of the Calcio Fiorentino field and starting positions, from a 1688 book by Pietro di Lorenzo Bini.

Association football, also known as football, soccer, footy and footie

Indoor/basketball court varieties of Football:

• Five-a-side football — played throughout the world under various rules including:
  • Futsal — the FIFA-approved five-a-side indoor game
  • — the five-a-side indoor game played in East and West Flanders where it is hugely popular
  • Papi fut the five-a-side game played in outdoor basketball courts (built with goals) in Central America.
• Indoor soccer — the six-a-side indoor game as played in North America. Known in Latin America, where it is often played in open air venues, as fútbol rápido ("fast soccer")

Paralympic football — modified Football for athletes with a disability. Includes:

• Football 5-a-side — for visually impaired athletes
• Football 7-a-side — for athletes with cerebral palsy
• Electric wheelchair soccer

Beach soccer — football played on sand, also known as sand soccer

Street football — encompasses a number of informal varieties of football

Rush goalie — is a variation of football in which the role of the goalkeeper is more flexible than normal

Headers and volleys — where the aim is to score goals against a goalkeeper using only headers and volleys

Crab football — players stand on their hands and feet and move around on their backs whilst playing soccer as normal

Swamp soccer — the game is played on a swamp or bog field

Rugby school football and descendants

• Rugby football
  • Rugby league — usually known simply as "football" or "footy" in the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland, and by some followers of the game in England. Also often referred to simply as "league"
    • Rugby league nines (or sevens)
    • Touch football (rugby league) — a non-contact version of rugby league. In South Africa it is known as six down
    • Oz Tag — a non-contact version of rugby league, in which a velcro tag is removed to indicate a tackle
  • Rugby union
    • Rugby sevens
      

      

      Rugby sevens; Fiji v Cook Islands at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne
    • Tag rugby — a form of rugby union using the velcro tag
  • Beach rugby — rugby played on sand
  • Touch rugby — generic name for forms of rugby football which does not feature tackles
• American football — called "football" in the United States and Canada, and "gridiron" in Australia and New Zealand. Sometimes called "tackle football" to distinguish it from the touch versions
  • Arena football — an indoor version of American football
  • Nine-man football, eight-man football, six-man football — versions of tackle football, played primarily by smaller high schools that lack enough players to field full 11-man teams
  • Touch football (American) — non-tackle American football
    • Flag football — non-tackle American football, like touch football, in which a flag that is held by velcro on a belt tied around the waist is pulled by defenders to indicate a tackle
• Canadian football — called simply "football" in Canada; "football" in Canada can mean either Canadian or American football depending on context
  • Canadian flag football — non-tackle Canadian football
  • Nine-man football — similar to nine-man American football, but using Canadian rules; played by smaller schools in Saskatchewan that lack enough players to field full 12-man teams

See also: Comparison of American football and rugby league, Comparison of American football and rugby union, Comparison of Canadian and American football, Comparison of rugby league and rugby union.

Irish and Australian varieties

International rules football test match from the 2005 International Rules Series between Australia and Ireland at Telstra Dome, Melbourne, Australia.

These codes have in common the absence of an offside rule, the requirement to bounce or solo (toe-kick) the ball while running, handpassing by punching or tapping the ball rather than throwing it, and other traditions.

• Australian rules football — officially known as "Australian football", and informally as "Aussie rules" or "footy". In some areas (erroneously) referred to as "AFL", which is the name of the main organising body and competition
  • Auskick — a version of Australian rules designed by the AFL for young children
  • Metro footy (or Metro rules footy) — a modified version invented by the USAFL, for use on gridiron fields in North American cities (which often lack grounds large enough for conventional Australian rules matches)
  • Kick-to-kick
  • 9-a-side footy — a more open, running variety of Australian rules, requiring 18 players in total and a proportionally smaller playing area (includes contact and non-contact varieties)
  • Rec footy — "Recreational Football", a modified non-contact touch variation of Australian rules, created by the AFL, which replaces tackles with tags
  • Touch Aussie Rules — a non-contact variation of Australian Rules played only in the United Kingdom
  • Samoa rules — localised version adapted to Samoan conditions, such as the use of rugby football fields
  • Masters Australian football (a.k.a. Superules) — reduced contact version introduced for competitions limited to players over 30 years of age
  • Women's Australian rules football — played with a smaller ball and (sometimes) reduced contact version introduced for women's competition
• Gaelic football — Played predominantly in Ireland. Sometimes referred to as "football" or "gaah" (from the acronym for Gaelic Athletic Association)
  • Ladies Gaelic football
• International rules football — a compromise code used for games between Gaelic and Australian Rules players

See also: Comparison of Australian rules football and Gaelic football

Surviving Mediæval ball games

The ball is hit into the air at the 2006 Royal Shrovetide Football match. (Photographer: Gary Austin.)

British Shrove Tuesday games

• • Alnwick in Northumberland
  • Ashbourne in Derbyshire (known as Royal Shrovetide Football)
  • Atherstone in Warwickshire
  • Corfe Castle in Dorset — The Shrove Tuesday Football Ceremony of the Purbeck Marblers.
  • Haxey in Lincolnshire (the Haxey Hood, actually played on Epiphany)
  • Hurling the Silver Ball takes place at St Columb Major in Cornwall
  • Sedgefield in County Durham
  • In Scotland the Ba game ("Ball Game") is still popular around Christmas and Hogmanay at:
    • Duns, Berwickshire
    • Scone, Perthshire
    • Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands

Outside the UK

• Calcio Fiorentino — a modern revival of Renaissance football from 16th century Florence.

Surviving public school games

Harrow football players after a game at Harrow School.

• Eton field game
• Eton wall game
• Harrow football
• Winchester College football

Recent inventions and hybrid games

• Based on FA rules:
  • Cubbies
  • Three sided football
• Keepie uppie — is the art of juggling with a football using feet, knees, chest, shoulders, and head.
  • Footbag — is a small bean bag or sand bag used as a ball in a number of keepie uppie variations, including hacky sack (which is a trade mark).
• Freestyle football — a modern take on keepie uppie where freestylers are graded for their entertainment value and expression of skill.
• Based on rugby:
  • Scuffleball
  • a.k.a. forcing back, forcemanback et c.
• Hybrid games
  • Austus — a compromise between Australian rules and American football, invented in Melbourne during World War II.
  • Bossaball — mixes Association football and volleyball and gymnastics; played on inflatables and trampolines.
  • Footvolley — mixes Association football and beach volleyball; played on sand
  • Kickball — a hybrid of soccer and baseball, invented in the United States in about 1942.
  • Speedball (American) — a combination of American football, soccer, and basketball, devised in the United States in 1912.
  • Universal football — A hybrid of Australian rules and rugby league, trialled in Sydney in 1933.^[25]
  • Volata — a game resembling Association football and European handball, devised by Italian fascist leader, Augusto Turati, in the 1920s.
  • Wheelchair rugby — also known as Murderball, invented in Canada in 1977. Based on ice hockey and basketball rather than rugby.
    • Wheelchair rugby league

Tabletop games and other recreations

• Based on Football (soccer):
  • Subbuteo
  • Blow football
  • Table football — also known as foosball, table soccer, babyfoot, bar football or gettone)
  • Fantasy football (soccer)
  • Button football — also known as Futebol de Mesa, Jogo de Botões
  • Penny football
• Based on rugby:
  • Penny rugby
• Based on American football:
  • Paper football
  • Blood Bowl
  • Fantasy football (American)
  • Madden NFL
  • NFL
• Based on Australian football:
  • List of Australian rules football computer games
    • AFL Premiership 2005

See also

• Players who have converted from one football code to another
• Football field (unit of length)

Notes

1. ^ Sports historian Bill Murray, quoted by The Sports Factor, "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport" (Radio National, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, May 31, 2002) and Michael Scott Moore, "Naming the Beautiful Game: It's Called Soccer" (Der Spiegel, June 7, 2006). See also: ICONS Online (no date) "History of Football" and; Professional Football Researchers Association, (no date) "A Freendly Kinde of Fight: The Origins of Football to 1633". Access date for all references: February 11, 2007.
2. ^ FIFA.com - Host Country: China
3. ^ From William Blandowski's Australien in 142 Photographischen Abbildungen, 1857, (Haddon Library, Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology, Cambridge)
4. ^ Richard Hakluyt, Voyages in Search of The North-West Passage, University of Adelaide, December 29, 2003
5. ^ Stephen Alsford, FitzStephen's Description of London, Florilegium Urbanum, April 5, 2006
6. ^ ^{a b c d} Francis Peabody Magoun, 1929, "Football in Medieval England and Middle-English literature” (The American Historical Review, v. 35, No. 1).
7. ^ ^{a b} Online Etymology Dictionary (no date), "football"
8. ^ Vivek Chaudhary, “Who's the fat bloke in the number eight shirt?” (The Guardian, February 18, 2004.)
9. ^ Anniina Jokinen, Sir Philip Sidney. "A Dialogue Between Two Shepherds" (Luminarium.org, July 2006)
10. ^ Richard Carew. EBook of The Survey of Cornwall. Project Guternberg. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
11. ^ International Olympic Academy (I.O.A.) (no date), “Minutes 7th International Post Graduate Seminar on Olympic Studies”
12. ^ John Lord Campbell, The Lives of the Lords Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England, vol. 2, 1851, p. 412
13. ^ William Maxwell Hetherington, 1856, History of the Westminster Assembly of Divines, Ch.1 (Third Ed.)
14. ^ footballnetwork.org , 2003, “Richard Mulcaster”
15. ^ Francis Willughby, 1660-72, Book of Games
16. ^ ^{a b} Julian Carosi, 2006, "The History of Offside"
17. ^ For example, the English writer William Hone, writing in 1825 or 1826, quotes the social commentator Sir Frederick Morton Eden, regarding "Foot-Ball", as played at Scone, Scotland:

    The game was this: he who at any time got the ball into his hands, run [sic] with it till overtaken by one of the opposite part; and then, if he could shake himself loose from those on the opposite side who seized him, he run on; if not, he threw the ball from him, unless it was wrested from him by the other party, but no person was allowed to kick it. (William Hone, 1825-26, The Every-Day Book, "February 15." Access date: March 15, 2007.)

18. ^ Rugby chronology. Museum of Rugby. Retrieved on April 24, 2006.
19. ^ Soccer Ball World - Early History (Accessed June 9, 2006)
20. ^ The exact name of Mr Lindon is in dispute, as well as the exact timing of the creation of the inflatable bladder. It is known that he created this for both association and rugby footballs. However, sites devoted to football indicate he was known as HJ Lindon, who was actually Richards Lindon's son, and created the ball in 1862 (ref: Soccer Ball World), whereas rugby sites refer to him as Richard Lindon creating the ball in 1870 (ref: Guardian article). Both agree that his wife died when inflating pig's bladders. This information originated from web sites which may be unreliable, and the answer may only be found in researching books in central libraries.
21. ^ soccerballworld.com, (no date) "Charles Goodyear's Soccer Ball" Downloaded 30/11/06.
22. ^ Letter from Tom Wills. MCG website. Retrieved on 2006-07-14.
23. ^ ^{a b} The Origins of Australian Rules Football. MCG website. Retrieved on 2007-06-22.
24. ^ Canadian Football Timelines (1860 – present). Football Canada. Retrieved on 2006-12-23.
25. ^ Sean Fagan, Breaking The Codes, RL1908.com, 2006

References

• Mandelbaum, Michael (2004); The Meaning of Sports; Public Affairs,
• Green, Geoffrey (1953); The History of the Football Association; Naldrett Press, London
• Williams, Graham (1994); The Code War; Yore Publications,

External links

• Wilfried Gerhardt, "The colourful history of a fascinating game" (from the FIFA website)

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