Acronym Definition
TLPF Taxicab, Limousine & Paratransit Foundation
TLPE The Level Playing Field
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 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
Football (word)
While it is widely believed that the word "football" (or "foot ball") originated
in reference to the action of a foot kicking a ball, there is a rival
explanation, which has it that football originally referred to a variety of
games in medieval Europe, which were played on foot. These games were usually
played by peasants, as opposed to the horse-riding sports often played by
aristocrats. While there is no conclusive evidence for this explanation, the
word football has always implied a variety of games played on foot, not just
those that involved kicking a ball. In some cases, the word football has even
been applied to games which have specifically outlawed kicking the ball
History
Early history
Kemari being played at the Tanzan Shrine, Sakurai, Japan.
Ancient games
Documented evidence of what is possibly the oldest activity resembling football
can be found in a Chinese military manual written during the Warring States
Period in about the 476 BC-221 BC. It describes a practice known as cuju, which
involved kicking a leather ball through a hole in a piece of silk cloth strung
between two 30-foot poles. This game later spread to Korea, where it was known
as chuk-guk.
Another Asian ball-kicking game, which was influenced by cuju, is kemari. This
is known to have been played within the Japanese imperial court in Kyoto from
about 600 AD. In kemari several people stand in a circle and kick a ball to each
other, trying not to let the ball drop to the ground (much like keepie uppie).
The game appears to have died out sometime before the mid-19th century. It was
revived in 1903 and is now played at a number of festivals.
The Ancient Greeks and Romans are known to have played many ball games some of
which involved the use of the feet. The Roman writer Cicero describes the case
of a man who was killed whilst having a shave when a ball was kicked into a
barber's shop. The Roman game harpastum is believed to have been adapted from a
team game known as "επισκυρο?" (episkyros) or pheninda that is mentioned by
Greek playwright, Antiphanes (388-311BC) and later referred to by Clement of
Alexandria. These games appears to have resembled rugby.
An illustration from the 1850s of Australian Aboriginal hunter gatherers.
Children in the background are playing a football game, possibly Marn Grook.
There are a number of references to traditional, ancient, and/or prehistoric
ball games, played by indigenous peoples in many different parts of the world.
For example, in 1586, men from a ship commanded by an English explorer named
John Davis, went ashore to play a form of football with Inuit (Eskimo) people in
Greenland. There are later accounts of an Inuit game played on ice, called
Aqsaqtuk. Each match began with two teams facing each other in parallel lines,
before attempting to kick the ball through each other team's line and then at a
goal. In 1610, William Strachey of the Jamestown settlement, Virginia recorded a
game played by Native Americans, called Pahsaheman. In Victoria, Australia,
indigenous people played a game called Marn Grook ("ball game"). An 1878 book by
Robert Brough-Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria, quotes a man called Richard
Thomas as saying, in about 1841, that he had witnessed Aboriginal people playing
the game: "Mr Thomas describes how the foremost player will drop kick a ball
made from the skin of a possum and how other players leap into the air in order
to catch it." It is widely believed that Marn Grook had an influence on the
development of Australian rules football (see below).
Mesoamerican ballgames played with rubber balls are also well-documented as
existing since before this time, but these had more similarities to basketball
or volleyball, and since their influence on modern football games is minimal,
most do not class them as football.
These games and others may well go far back into antiquity and may have
influenced later football games. However, the main sources of modern football
codes appear to lie in western Europe, especially England.
Medieval and early modern Europe
Further information: Medieval football
The Middle Ages saw a huge rise in popularity of annual Shrovetide football
matches throughout Europe, particularly in England. The game played in England
at this time may have arrived with the Roman occupation, but there is little
evidence to indicate this. Reports of a game played in Brittany, Normandy, and
Picardy, known as La Soule or Choule, suggest that some of these football games
could have arrived in England as a result of the Norman Conquest.
An illustration of mob football.These archaic forms of football, typically
classified as "mob football", would be played between neighbouring towns and
villages, involving an unlimited number of players on opposing teams, who would
clash in a heaving mass of people struggling to drag an inflated pig's bladder
by any means possible to markers at each end of a town (sometimes instead of
markers, the teams would attempt to kick the bladder into the balcony of the
opponents' church). There is no evidence to support the legend that these games
in England evolved from a more ancient and bloody ritual of kicking the "Dane's
head". Shrovetide games have survived into the modern era in a number of English
towns (see below).
The first detailed description of football in England was given by William
FitzStephen in about 1174-1183. He described the activities of London youths
during the annual festival of Shrove Tuesday:
After lunch all the youth of the city go out into the fields to take part in a
ball game. The students of each school have their own ball; the workers from
each city craft are also carrying their balls. Older citizens, fathers, and
wealthy citizens come on horseback to watch their juniors competing, and to
relive their own youth vicariously: you can see their inner passions aroused as
they watch the action and get caught up in the fun being had by the carefree
adolescents.
Most of the very early references to the game speak simply of "ball play" or
"playing at ball". This reinforces the idea that the games played at the time
did not necessarily involve a ball being kicked.
In 1314, Nicholas de Farndone, Lord Mayor of London issued a decree banning
football (in the French used by the English upper classes at the time. A
translation reads: " orasmuch as there is great noise in the city caused by
hustling over large foot balls [rageries de grosses pelotes de pee] in the
fields of the public from which many evils might arise which God forbid: we
command and forbid on behalf of the king, on pain of imprisonment, such game to
be used in the city in the future." This is the earliest reference to football.
The earliest mention of a ball game that involves kicking was in 1321, in
Shouldham, Norfolk: " uring the game at ball as he kicked the ball, a lay friend
of his... ran against him and wounded himself".
In 1363, King Edward III of England issued a proclamation banning "...handball,
football, or hockey; coursing and cock-fighting, or other such idle games",
showing that "football" whatever its exact form in this case was being
differentiated from games involving other parts of the body, such as handball.
King Henry IV of England gives the earliest documented use of the English word
"football", in 1409, when he issued a proclamation forbidding the levying of
money for "foteball".
There is also an account in Latin from the end of the 15th century of football
being played at Cawston, Nottinghamshire. This is the first description of a
"kicking game" and the first description of dribbling: " he game at which they
had met for common recreation is called by some the foot-ball game. It is one in
which young men, in country sport, propel a huge ball not by throwing it into
the air but by striking it and rolling it along the ground, and that not with
their hands but with their feet... kicking in opposite directions" The
chronicler gives the earliest reference to a football field, stating that: " he
boundaries have been marked and the game had started.
Other firsts in the medi?val and early modern eras:
"a football", in the sense of a ball rather than a game, was first mentioned in
1486. 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."
a pair of football boots was ordered by King Henry VIII of England in 1526.
women playing a form of football was in 1580, when Sir Philip Sidney described
it in one of his poems: " tyme there is for all, my mother often sayes, When
she, with skirts tuckt very hy, with girles at football playes."
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". 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 The Blind
Beggar of Bethnal Green (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. Calcio Fiorentino
In the 16th century, the city of Florence celebrated the period between Epiphany
and Lent by playing a game which today is known as "calcio storico" ("historic
kickball") in the Piazza della Novere or the Piazza Santa Croce. The young
aristocrats of the city would dress up in fine silk costumes and embroil
themselves in a violent form of football. For example, calcio players could
punch, shoulder charge, and kick opponents. Blows below the belt were allowed.
The game is said to have originated as a military training exercise. In 1580,
Count Giovanni de' Bardi di Vernio wrote Discorso sopra 'l giuoco del Calcio
Fiorentino. This is sometimes said to be the earliest code of rules for any
football game. The game was not played after January 1739 (until it was revived
in May 1930).
Official disapproval and attempts to ban football
Attempts to ban football games
Numerous attempts have been made to ban football games, particularly the most
rowdy and disruptive forms. This was especially the case in England and in other
parts of Europe, during the Middle Ages and early modern period. Between 1324
and 1667, football was banned in England alone by more than 30 royal and local
laws. The need to repeatedly proclaim such laws demonstrated the difficulty in
enforcing bans on popular games. King Edward II was so troubled by the
unruliness of football in London that on April 13, 1314 he issued a proclamation
banning it: "Forasmuch as there is great noise in the city caused by hustling
over large balls from which many evils may arise which God forbid; we command
and forbid, on behalf of the King, on pain of imprisonment, such game to be used
in the city in the future."
The reasons for the ban by Edward III, on June 12, 1349, were explicit: football
and other recreations distracted the populace from practicing archery, which was
necessary for war.
By 1608, the local authorities in Manchester were complaining that: "With the
ffotebale...[there] hath beene greate disorder in our towne of Manchester we are
told, and glasse windowes broken yearlye and spoyled by a companie of lewd and
disordered persons ..." That same year, the word "football" was used
disapprovingly by William Shakespeare. Shakespeare's play King Lear contains the
line: "Nor tripped neither, you base football player" (Act I, Scene 4).
Shakespeare also mentions the game in A Comedy of Errors (Act II, Scene 1):
Am I so round with you as you with me,
That like a football you do spurn me thus?
You spurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither:
If I last in this service, you must case me in leather.
"Spurn" literally means to kick away, thus implying that the game involved
kicking a ball between players.
King James I of England's Book of Sports (1618) however, instructs Christians to
play at football every Sunday afternoon after worship. The book's aim appears to
be an attempt to offset the strictness of the Puritans regarding the keeping of
the Sabbath.
Establishment of modern codes
British public schools
British public school football games
While football continued to be played in various forms throughout Britain, its
public schools (known as private schools in other countries) are widely credited
with four key achievements in the creation of modern football codes. First of
all, the evidence suggests that they were important in taking football away from
its "mob" form and turning it into an organised team sport. Second, many early
descriptions of football and references to it were recorded by people who had
studied at these schools. Third, it was teachers, students and former students
from these schools who first codified football games, to enable matches to be
played between schools. Finally, it was at British public schools that the
division between "kicking" and "running" (or "carrying") games first became
clear.
The earliest evidence that games resembling football were being played at
English public schools mainly attended by boys from the upper, upper-middle
and professional classes comes from the Vulgaria by William Horman in 1519.
Horman had been headmaster at Eton and Winchester colleges and his Latin
textbook includes a translation exercise with the phrase "We wyll playe with a
ball full of wynde".
Richard Mulcaster, a student at Eton College in the early 16th century and later
headmaster at other English schools, has been described as the greatest
sixteenth Century advocate of football. Among his contributions are the
earliest evidence of organised team football. Mulcaster's writings refer to
teams ("sides" and "parties"), positions ("standings"), a referee ("judge over
the parties") and a coach "(trayning maister)". Mulcaster's "footeball" had
evolved from the disordered and violent forms of traditional football:
[s]ome smaller number with such overlooking, sorted into sides and standings,
not meeting with their bodies so boisterously to trie their strength: nor
shouldring or shuffing one an other so barbarously ... may use footeball for as
much good to the body, by the chiefe use of the legges.
In 1633, David Wedderburn, a teacher from Aberdeen, mentioned elements of modern
football games in a short Latin textbook called "Vocabula". Wedderburn refers to
what has been translated into modern English as "keeping goal" and makes an
allusion to passing the ball ("strike it here"). There is a reference to "get
hold of the ball", suggesting that some handling was allowed. It is clear that
the tackles allowed included the charging and holding of opposing players
("drive that man back").
A more detailed description of football is given in Francis Willughby's Book of
Games, written in about 1660. Willughby, who had studied at Sutton Coldfield
School, is the first to describe goals and a distinct playing field: "a close
that has a gate at either end. The gates are called Goals". His book includes a
diagram illustrating a football field. He also mentions tactics ("leaving some
of their best players to guard the goal"); scoring ("they that can strike the
ball through their opponents' goal first win") and; the way teams were selected
("the players being equally divided according to their strength and
nimbleness"). He is the first to describe a "law" of football: "they must not
strike [an opponent's leg] higher than the ball".
English public schools also devised the first offside rules, during the late
18th century. In the earliest manifestations of these rules, players were "off
their side" if they simply stood between the ball and the goal which was their
objective. Players were not allowed to pass the ball forward, either by foot or
by hand. They could only dribble with their feet, or advance the ball in a scrum
or similar formation. However, offside laws began to diverge and develop
differently at the each school, as is shown by the rules of football from
Winchester, Rugby, Harrow and Cheltenham, during in the period of 1810-1850.
By the early 19th century, (before the Factory Act of 1850), most working class
people in Britain had to work six days a week, often for over twelve hours a
day. They had neither the time nor the inclination to engage in sport for
recreation and, at the time, many children were part of the labour force. Feast
day football played on the streets was in decline. Public school boys, who
enjoyed some freedom from work, became the inventors of organised football games
with formal codes of rules.
Football was adopted by a number of public schools as a way of encouraging
competitiveness and keeping youths fit. Each school drafted its own rules, which
varied widely between different schools and were changed over time with each new
intake of pupils. Two schools of thought developed regarding rules. Some schools
favoured a game in which the ball could be carried (as at Rugby, Marlborough and
Cheltenham), while others preferred a game where kicking and dribbling the ball
was promoted (as at Eton, Harrow, Westminster and Charterhouse). The division
into these two camps was partly the result of circumstances in which the games
were played. For example, Charterhouse and Westminster at the time had
restricted playing areas; the boys were confined to playing their ball game
within the school cloisters, making it difficult for them to adopt rough and
tumble running games.
Rugby SchoolWilliam Webb Ellis, a pupil at Rugby School, is said to have "showed
a fine disregard for the rules of football, as played in his time" by picking up
the ball and running to the opponents' goal in 1823. This act is usually said to
be the beginning of Rugby football, but there is little evidence that it
occurred, and most sports historians believe the story to be apocryphal.
Nevertheless, by 1841 (some sources say 1842), running with the ball had become
acceptable at Rugby, as long as a player gathered the ball on the full or from a
bounce, he was not offside and he did not pass the ball.
The boom in rail transport in Britain during the 1840s meant that people were
able to travel further and with less inconvenience than they ever had before.
Inter-school sporting competitions became possible. However, it was difficult
for schools to play each other at football, as each school played by its own
rules.
Apart from Rugby football, the public school codes have barely been played
beyond the confines of each school's playing fields. However, many of them are
still played at the schools which created them (see Surviving public school
games below).
The first clubs
Oldest football clubs
During this period, the Rugby school rules appear to have spread at least as
far, perhaps further, than the other schools' codes. For example, two clubs
which claim to be the world's first and/or oldest football club, in the sense of
a club which is not part of a school or university, are strongholds of rugby
football: the Barnes Club, said to have been founded in 1839, and Guy's Hospital
Football Club, in 1843. Neither date nor the variety of football played is
well-documented, but such claims nevertheless allude to the popularity of rugby
before other modern codes emerged.
In 1845, three boys at Rugby school were tasked with codifying the rules then
being used at the school. These were the first set of written rules (or code)
for any form of football. This further assisted the spread of the Rugby game.
For instance, Dublin University Football Club founded at Trinity College,
Dublin in 1854 and later famous as a bastion of the Rugby School game is the
world's oldest documented football club in any code.
Cambridge rules
Cambridge rules
In 1848, at Cambridge University, Mr. H. de Winton and Mr. J.C. Thring, who were
both formerly at Shrewsbury School, called a meeting at Trinity College,
Cambridge with 12 other representatives from Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester and
Shrewsbury. An eight-hour meeting produced what amounted to the first set of
modern rules, known as the Cambridge rules. No copy of these rules now exists,
but a revised version from circa 1856 is held in the library of Shrewsbury
School. The rules clearly favour the kicking game. Handling was only allowed for
a player to take a clean catch entitling them to a free kick and there was a
primitive offside rule, disallowing players from "loitering" around the
opponents' goal. The Cambridge rules were not widely adopted outside English
public schools and universities (but it was arguably the most significant
influence on the Football Association committee members responsible for
formulating the rules of Association football).
The first modern balls
football (ball)
Richard Lindon (seen in 1880) is believed to have invented the first footballs
with rubber bladders.In Europe, early footballs were made out of animal
bladders, more specifically pig's bladders, which were inflated. Later leather
coverings were introduced to allow the ball to keep their shape. However, in
1851, Richard Lindon and William Gilbert, both shoemakers from the town of Rugby
(near the school), exhibited both round and oval-shaped balls at the Great
Exhibition in London. Richard Lindon's wife is said to have died due to lung
disease caused by blowing up pig's bladders. Lindon also won medals for the
invention of the "Rubber inflatable Bladder" and the "Brass Hand Pump".
In 1855, the U.S. inventor Charles Goodyear who had patented vulcanized rubber
exhibited a spherical football, with an exterior of vulcanized rubber panels,
at the Paris Exhibition Universelle. The ball was to prove popular in early
forms of football in the U.S.A.
Sheffield rules
Sheffield rules
By the late 1850s, many football clubs had been formed throughout the
English-speaking world, to play various codes of football.
Sheffield Football Club, founded in 1857 in the English city of Sheffield, by
former Harrow School pupils Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest, was later
recognised as the world's oldest club playing association football. However, the
club initially played its own code of football: the Sheffield rules. There were
some similarities to the Cambridge rules, but players were allowed to push or
hit the ball with their hands, and there was no offside rule at all, so that
players known as kick throughs could be permanently positioned near the
opponents' goal. The code spread to a number of clubs in the area and was
popular until the 1870s.
Australian rules
An Australian rules football match at the Richmond Paddock, Melbourne, in 1866.
(A wood engraving by Robert Bruce.) Australian rules football
The invention of Australian rules football is usually attributed to Tom Wills,
who published a letter in Bell's Life in Victoria & Sporting Chronicle, on July
10, 1858, calling for a "foot-ball club" with a "code of laws" to keep
cricketers fit during winter. (Official sources which include Wills' cousin,
H.C.A. Harrison, as a founder of the code are now generally believed to be
incorrect.)
Wills had been educated in England, at Rugby School and had played cricket for
Cambridge University. The extent to which he was influenced by the various
British and Irish football games is a matter of controversy, but there were
similarities between some of them and his game. Australian football also has
some similarities to the Australian Aboriginal game of Marn Grook (see above),
which he reportedly witnessed as a child in western Victoria.
On July 31, 1858, Wills and people responding to his letter met and experimented
with various forms of football. On August 7, Wills umpired a game between
Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College, which took place under modified
Rugby School rules.
Melbourne Football Club was also founded on August 7, and is the oldest
surviving Australian football club, but the rules it used during its first
season are unknown. On May 17, 1859, at the Parade Hotel, East Melbourne,
members of the club drew up the first set of laws for Australian rules football.
The drafters included Wills, W.J. Hammersley, J.B. Thompson and Thomas Smith.
Although their code also had pronounced similarities to the Sheffield rules,
most notably in the absence of an offside rule, it is not known if they were
influenced by it. A free kick was awarded for a mark (clean catch). Running
while holding the ball was allowed and although it was not specified in the
rules, a rugby ball was used. The club shared many members with the Melbourne
Cricket Club, which was based at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and cricket ovals
which vary in size and are much larger than the fields used in other forms of
football became the standard playing field for Australian rules. The 1859
rules did not include some elements which would soon become important to the
game, such as the requirement to bounce the ball while running.
Australian rules is sometimes said to be the first form of football to be
codified but, as was the case in all kinds of football at the time, there was no
official body supporting the rules, and play varied from one club to another. By
1866, however, several other clubs in the Colony of Victoria had agreed to play
an updated version of the Melbourne FC rules, which were later known as
"Victorian Rules" and "Australasian Rules". The formal name of the code later
became Australian rules football (and, more recently, Australian football). By
the end of the 19th century, the code had spread to the other Australian
colonies and other parts of the world. However, rugby football would remain more
popular in New South Wales and Queensland.
The Football Association
The first football international, Scotland versus England. Once kept by the
Rugby Football Union as an early example of rugby football. History of The
Football Association
During the early 1860s, there were increasing attempts in England to unify and
reconcile the various public school games. In 1862, J. C. Thring, who had been
one of the driving forces behind the original Cambridge Rules, was a master at
Uppingham School and he issued his own rules of what he called "The Simplest
Game" (these are also known as the Uppingham Rules). In early October 1863
another new revised version of the Cambridge Rules was drawn up by a seven
member committee representing former pupils from Harrow, Shrewsbury, Eton,
Rugby, Marlborough and Westminster.
At the Freemason's Tavern, Great Queen Street, London on the evening of October
26, 1863, representatives of several football clubs in the London Metropolitan
area met for the inaugural meeting of The Football Association (FA). The aim of
the Association was to establish a single unifying code and regulate the playing
of the game among its members. Following the first meeting, the public schools
were invited were sent to join the association. All of them declined, except
Charterhouse and Uppingham. In total, six meetings of the FA were held between
October and December 1863. After the third meeting, a draft set of rules were
published. However, at the beginning of the fourth meeting, attention was drawn
to the recently-published Cambridge Rules of 1863. The Cambridge rules differed
from the draft FA rules in two significant areas; namely running with (carrying)
the ball and hacking (kicking opposing players in the shins). The two
contentious FA rules were as follows:
IX. A player shall be entitled to run with the ball towards his adversaries'
goal if he makes a fair catch, or catches the ball on the first bound; but in
case of a fair catch, if he makes his mark [to take a free kick] he shall not
run.
X. If any player shall run with the ball towards his adversaries' goal, any
player on the opposite side shall be at liberty to charge, hold, trip or hack
him, or to wrest the ball from him, but no player shall be held and hacked at
the same time.
At the fifth meeting it was proposed that these two rules be removed. Most of
the delegates supported this, but F. W. Campbell, the representative from
Blackheath and the first FA treasurer, objected. He said: "hacking is the true
football". However, the motion to ban hacking was carried and Blackheath
withdrew from the FA. After the final meeting on 8 December, the FA published
the "Laws of Football", the first comprehensive set of rules for the game later
known as football (later known in some countries as soccer).
The first FA rules still contained elements that are no longer part of
association football, but which are still recognisable in other games (most
notably Australian football): for instance, a player could make a fair catch and
claim a mark, which entitled him to a free kick, and; if a player touched the
ball behind the opponents' goal line, his side was entitled to a free kick at
goal, from 15 yards in front of the goal line.
Rugby football
History of rugby union
A rugby scrum in 1871.In Britain, by 1870, there were about 75 clubs playing
variations of the Rugby school game. There were also "rugby" clubs in Ireland,
Australia, Canada and New Zealand. However, there was no generally accepted set
of rules for rugby until 1871, when 21 clubs from London came together to form
the Rugby Football Union (RFU). (Ironically, Blackheath now lobbied to ban
hacking.) The first official RFU rules were adopted in June 1871. These rules
allowed passing the ball. They also included the try, where touching the ball
over the line allowed an attempt at goal, though drop-goals from marks and
general play, and penalty conversions were still the main form of contest.
North American football codes
Main articles: History of American football and History of Canadian football.
As was the case in Britain, by the early 19th century, North American schools
and universities played their own local games, between sides made up of
students. Students at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire played a game called
Old division football, a variant of the association football codes, as early as
the 1820s.
The "Tigers" of Hamilton, Ontario circa 1906. Founded 1869 as the Hamilton Foot
Ball Club, they eventually merged with the Hamilton Flying Wildcats to form the
Hamilton Tiger-Cats, a team still active in the Canadian Football League. The
first game of rugby in Canada is generally said to have taken place in Montreal,
in 1865, when British Army officers played local civilians. The game gradually
gained a following, and the Montreal Football Club was formed in 1868, the first
recorded football club in Canada.
In 1869, the first game played in the United States under rules based on the
English FA (soccer) code occurred, between Princeton and Rutgers. This is also
often considered to be the first US game of college football, in the sense of a
game between colleges (although the eventual form of American football would
come from rugby, not soccer).
Modern American football grew out of a match between McGill University of
Montreal, and Harvard University in 1874. At the time, Harvard students are
reported to have played the Boston Game a running code rather than the
FA-based kicking games favored by US universities. This made it easy for Harvard
to adapt to the rugby-based game played by McGill and the two teams alternated
between their respective sets of rules. Within a few years, however, Harvard had
both adopted McGill's rugby rules and had persuaded other US university teams to
do the same. In 1876, at the Massasoit Convention, it was agreed by these
universities to adopt most of the Rugby Football Union rules. However, a
touch-down only counted toward the score if neither side kicked a field goal.
The convention decided that, in the US game, four touchdowns would be worth one
goal; in the event of a tied score, a goal converted from a touchdown would take
precedence over four touch-downs.
Princeton, Rutgers and others continued to compete using soccer-based rules for
a few years before switching to the rugby-based rules of Harvard and its
competitors. US colleges did not generally return to soccer until the early
twentieth century.
Rutgers College Football Team, 1882In 1880, Yale coach Walter Camp, devised a
number of major changes to the American game, beginning with the reduction of
teams from 15 to 11 players, followed by reduction of the field area by almost
half, and; the introduction of the scrimmage, in which a player heeled the ball
backwards, to begin a game. These were complemented in 1882 by another of Camp's
innovations: a team had to surrender possession if they did not gain five yards
after three downs (i.e. successful tackles).
Over the years Canadian football absorbed some developments in American
football, but also retained many unique characteristics. One of these was that
Canadian football, for many years, did not officially distinguish itself from
rugby. For example, the Canadian Rugby Football Union, founded in 1884 was the
forerunner of the Canadian Football League, rather than a rugby union body. (The
Canadian Rugby Union was not formed until 1965.) American football was also
frequently described as "rugby" in the 1880s.
Gaelic football
History of Gaelic football
In the mid-19th century, various traditional football games, referred to
collectively as caid, remained popular in Ireland, especially in County Kerry.
One observer, Father W. Ferris, described two main forms of caid during this
period: the "field game" in which the object was to put the ball through
arch-like goals, formed from the boughs of two trees, and; the epic
"cross-country game" which took up most of the daylight hours of a Sunday on
which it was played, and was won by one team taking the ball across a parish
boundary. "Wrestling", "holding" opposing players, and carrying the ball were
all allowed.
By the 1870s, Rugby and Association football had started to become popular in
Ireland. Trinity College, Dublin was an early stronghold of Rugby (see the
Developments in the 1850s section, above). The rules of the English FA were
being distributed widely. Traditional forms of caid had begun to give way to a
"rough-and-tumble game" which allowed tripping.
There was no serious attempt to unify and codify Irish varieties of football,
until the establishment of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in 1884. The
GAA sought to promote traditional Irish sports, such as hurling and to reject
imported games like Rugby and Association football. The first Gaelic football
rules were drawn up by Maurice Davin and published in the United Ireland
magazine on February 7, 1887. Davin's rules showed the influence of games such
as hurling and a desire to formalise a distinctly Irish code of football. The
prime example of this differentiation was the lack of an offside rule (an
attribute which, for many years, was shared only by other Irish games like
hurling, and by Australian rules football).
The split in Rugby football
An English cartoon from the 1890s lampooning the divide in rugby football which
led to the formation of rugby league. The caricatures are of Rev. Frank
Marshall, an arch-opponent of player payments, and James Miller, a long-time
opponent of Marshall. The caption reads:
Marshall: "Oh, fie, go away naughty boy, I don't play with boys who cant afford
to take a holiday for football any day they like!" Miller: "Yes, thats just you
to a T; youd make it so that no lad whose father wasnt a millionaire could
play at all in a really good team. For my part I see no reason why the men who
make the money shouldnt have a share in the spending of it."Further
information: History of rugby league
The International Rugby Football Board (IRFB) was founded in 1886, but rifts
were beginning to emerge in the code. Professionalism was beginning to creep
into the various codes of football.
In Britain, by the 1890s, a long-standing Rugby Football Union ban on
professional players was causing regional tensions within rugby football, as
many players in northern England were working class and could not afford to take
time off to train, travel, play and recover from injuries. This was not very
different from what had occurred ten years earlier in soccer in Northern England
but the authorities reacted very differently in the RFU, attempting to alienate
the working class support in Northern England. In 1895, following a dispute
about a player being paid broken time payments, which replaced wages lost as a
result of playing rugby, representatives of the northern clubs met in
Huddersfield to form the Northern Rugby Football Union (NRFU). The new body
initially permitted only various types of player wage replacements. However,
within two years, NRFU players could be paid, but they were required to have a
job outside sport.
The demands of a professional league dictated that rugby had to become a better
"spectator" sport. Within a few years the NRFU rules had started to diverge from
the RFU, most notably with the abolition of the line-out. This was followed by
the replacement of the ruck with the "play-the-ball ruck", which allowed a
two-player ruck contest between the tackler at marker and the player tackled.
Mauls were stopped once the ball carrier was held, being replaced by a play-the
ball-ruck. The separate Lancashire and Yorkshire competitions of the NRFU merged
in 1901, forming the Northern Rugby League, the first time the name rugby league
was used officially in England.
Over time, the RFU form of rugby, played by clubs which remained members of
national federations affiliated to the IRFB, became known as rugby union.
The globalisation of Association football
History of FIFA
The need for a single body to oversee Association football had become apparent
by the beginning of the 20th century, with the increasing popularity of
international fixtures. The English Football Association had chaired many
discussions on setting up an international body, but was perceived as making no
progress. It fell to associations from seven other European countries: France,
Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, to form an
international association. The Fιdιration Internationale de Football Association
(FIFA) was founded in Paris on May 21, 1904. Its first president was Robert
Guιrin. The French name and acronym has remained, even outside French-speaking
countries.
The reform of American football
Both forms of rugby and American football were noted at the time for serious
injuries, as well as the deaths of a significant number of players. By the early
20th century in the USA, this had resulted in national controversy and American
football was banned by a number of colleges. Consequently, a series of meetings
was held by 19 colleges in 190506. This occurred reputedly at the behest of
President Theodore Roosevelt. He was considered a fancier of the game, but he
threatened to ban it unless the rules were modified to reduce the numbers of
deaths and disabilities. The meetings are now considered to be the origin of the
National Collegiate Athletic Association.
One proposed change was a widening of the playing field. However, Harvard
University had just built a concrete stadium and therefore objected to widening,
instead proposing legalisation of the forward pass. The report of the meetings
introduced many restrictions on tackling and two more divergences from rugby:
the forward pass and the banning of mass formation plays. The changes did not
immediately have the desired effect, and 33 American football players were
killed during 1908 alone. However, the number of deaths and injuries did
gradually decline.
Further divergence of the two rugby codes
Rugby league rules diverged significantly from rugby union in 1906, with the
reduction of the team from 15 to 13 players. In 1907, a New Zealand professional
rugby team toured Australia and Britain, receiving an enthusiastic response, and
professional rugby leagues were launched in Australia the following year.
However, the rules of professional games varied from one country to another, and
negotiations between various national bodies were required to fix the exact
rules for each international match. This situation endured until 1948, when at
the instigation of the French league, the Rugby League International Federation
(RLIF) was formed at a meeting in Bordeaux.
During the second half of 20th century, the rules changed further. In 1966,
rugby league officials borrowed the American football concept of downs: a team
could retain possession of the ball for no more than four tackles. The maximum
number of tackles was later increased to six (in 1971), and in rugby league this
became known as the six tackle rule.
With the advent of full-time professionals in the early 1990s, and the
consequent speeding up of the game, the five metre off-side distance between the
two teams became 10 metres, and the replacement rule was superseded by various
interchange rules, among other changes.
The laws of rugby union also changed significantly during the 20th century. In
particular, goals from marks were abolished, kicks directly into touch from
outside the 22 metre line were penalised, new laws were put in place to
determine who had possession following an inconclusive ruck or maul, and the
lifting of players in line-outs was legalised.
In 1995, rugby union became an "open" game, that is one which allowed
professional players. Although the original dispute between the two codes has
now disappeared and despite the fact that officials from both forms of rugby
football have sometimes mentioned the possibility of re-unification the rules
of both codes and their culture have diverged to such an extent that such an
event is unlikely in the foreseeable future.
Today
Use of the word "football" in English-speaking countries
Further information: Football (word)
The word "football", when used in reference to a specific game can mean any one
of those described above. Because of this, much friendly controversy has
occurred over the term football, primarily because it is used in different ways
in different parts of the English-speaking world. Most often, the word
"football" is used to refer to the code of football that is considered dominant
within a particular region. So, effectively, what the word "football" means
usually depends on where one says it.
The name "soccer" (or "soccer football") was originally a slang abbreviation of
association football and is now the prevailing term in the United States,
Canada, Australia and New Zealand where other codes of football are dominant.
Of the 45 national FIFA affiliates in which English is an official or primary
language, only three (Canada, Samoa and the United States) actually use "soccer"
in their organizations' official names, while the rest use football (although
the Samoan Federation actually uses both). However, in some countries, such as
Australia and New Zealand, use of the word "football" by soccer bodies is a
recent change and has been controversial.
Present day codes and "families"
Association football
British football has maintained a growing foothold in the enthusism of people
around the world. Major events, like the annual cup final match, attract large
international audiences. Bars in many nations are crowded as people, who will
never visit Great Britain, follow every move. By contrast, American football is
followed by few non-American nations.
Association football and descendants
An indoor soccer game at an open air venue in Mexico. The referee has just
awarded the red team a free kick.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
Minivoetbal 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 fϊtbol rαpido
("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 MelbourneTag
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 Medi?val 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
Triskelion
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
Force em backs 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.
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 power tag 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 Bot?es
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
Are you interested in
mult-player online internet games? Such as runescape and neopets?Internet
Game Online-games, tips, cheats and kids forumsAnother
good forum is the Internet Junction For Gamers IJFG.COM
Internet Junction For Gamers, Runescape Market and
More IJFG.COM Jokes, Pranks, Runescape and other cool games at IJFG.COM.
RuneScape is set in a medieval fantasy world, similar to "Guild Wars" or
"EverQuest", where players control character representations of themselves. As
with most massive multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPG), there is no
overall objective or end to the game. Players explore, form alliances, perform
optional tasks, and complete quests for rewards and to build character's skills.
RuneScape has often been one of
the top massive online role playing games. It is a unique game. But, with a
unique game, comes unique players. Players get bored, and then try to develop
cheats....autos or bots that will help them achieve success in their beloved
games of Runescape 2.
RuneScape is a virtual world which
is divided into two part: Members Areas and Non-Members areas. People who pay to
play (p2p), receive access to the special areas. They also have access to the
free areas. The members' places are much larger, offer "better" items for the
gameplay of rs2, and much, much more. The character that you create when you
first start playing runescape, moves around the game on foot; either by running,
or walking. Players are challenged to their utmost skills by fighting new
monsters, completing difficult quests, and manipulating marketing. As Runescape
2 is an RPG (Role playing game), there is no set path a person must take to play
rs. They can choose what to do, and when, whether it be training their
money-making skills, or fighting another player. Players usually interact with
each other by chatting through public chat, or private chat.Internet
Junction For Gamers, Runescape Market and More IJFG.COM IJFG.com was a
runescape 2 based site. They have now, however, taken another look....
Of course the king of all game
cheating websites is
trick
the trik (otherwise known as RPG Cheats Site), where you can find cheat
forums, mmorpg topsite, arcade games and any mmo game related topics.
The master of massive multiplayer
online role-playing games (MMORPG) cheats can be found at Trik.com
Trik.com; this site is one of the best today. The forum section,
Trik.com forum, originally came from IJFG.com (Internet Junction For
Gamers) , which was one of the best websites that discussed various gamers'
issues. The full name was Internet Junction For Gamers, Runescape Market and
More. This site had Jokes, Pranks, RuneScape and other cool games. RuneScape is
set in a medieval fantasy world, similar to "Guild Wars" or "EverQuest," where
players control character representations of themselves. As with most MMORPG,
there is no overall objective or end to the game. Players explore, form
alliances, perform optional tasks, and complete quests for rewards and to build
characters' skills.
Trik.com continues IJFG.com's
success, but Trik.com has more to offer. Trik Topsite can be found at
Trik Topsite; the TopSite is a great addition if you want to find the best
MMO RPG site(s) or raise your site in the rankings. Trik.com also has a
viciously competitive Arcade. If you want to be the #1 Arcade on Trik, then come
prove yourself at Trik.com arcade:
Trik arcade. Trik.com ?Trik.com/topsite ?Trik.com/forum/arcade.php
With the rising popularity of
commercial MMORPG games came the desire from ardent players of these games to
run their own servers beside the ones run by the game's creator. Since the
original server software is not usually available, the behavior of the server
has to be re-engineered. This can be done by analyzing the data stream with the
original server, or by disassembling and analyzing the client which is
available.
Ultima Online was one of the first
large MMORPGs. Due to its openness in implementation, server emulators arose
very quickly, even during the beta stage of development. The destination to
which the client connects was changeable by simply editing a text file. In beta
stage the client-server data stream was not encrypted yet. The term server
emulator became known through Ultima Online server reimplementation such as UOX,
which was the pioneer. Many forks and reimplementations followed UOX, because
its source code was released under the GNU General Public License relatively
early. RunUO is today the most widely used UO-server emulator. After RuneScape
implemented anti-cheating measures, many gamers left and started their own
private servers. The best place to discuss the private server is at
Trik- The Master of Private Server.
Another useful site is
Rune
Web ruwb.com . This site is about more serious RuneScape gold trading,
account exchange, gold for real life cash and many services. It includes tips on
how to avoid getting lured/scammed while using the marketplace. For programming,
visual basics, java, C/C++, scar and all other languages such as PHP, HTML, ASP,
Delphi. There are also sections for graphics talents, plus many cool videos and
fun stuff.
A defining moment in internet
gaming history was when a group of gamers called (hygo 7) decided to start an
ultimate game forum, which they named
hygo.com. It has the best financial backing, the friendliest game community,
and the highest quality of information. Currently Hygo.com has entered a new
phase...Hygo.com is offering the best private server game. With thousands of
members, Hygo.com is your next place to visit, as they have an amazing game with
a community and economy.
Hygo.com - The Online Adventure Game. is definitely one of the top sites you
want to join right now!
EZud is another popular site.
ezud.com. It has the best runescape bug abuse, bugs and trik.
ezud.com - The runescape bugs. is definitely one of the best sites you want
to join right now!
Contact Information
Call our office today to set up an appointment. Learn more about how we can
help you, and learn more about the other services that we can offer you. All
messages we receive will be answered as soon as possible. We look forward to
hearing from you.
- Electronic mail
- General Information:
