page_title: Football
section_title: Surviving UK school games
hierarchical_section_title: Football / Present day codes and families / Surviving UK school games
context_page_description: Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word football normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly called football include association football; gridiron football; Australian rules football; rugby football; and Gaelic football. These various forms of football share to varying extent common origins and are known as football codes.
  There are a number of references to traditional, ancient, or prehistoric ball games played in many different parts of the world. Contemporary codes of football can be traced back to the codification of these games at English public schools during the 19th century. The expansion and cultural influence of the British Empire allowed these rules of football to spread to areas of British influence outside the directly controlled Empire. By the end of the 19th century, distinct regional codes were already developing: Gaelic football, for example, deliberately incorporated the rules of local traditional football games in order to maintain their heritage.
context_section_description: Games still played at UK public (independent) schools:
  Eton field game
  Eton wall game
  Harrow football
  Winchester College football
caption: Harrow football players after a game at Harrow School (circa 2005).
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