Football Football refers to a number of sport s that involve , to varying degrees , kicking a ball with the foot to score a goal . The most popular of these sports worldwide is association football , more commonly known as just " football " or " soccer " . Unqualified , the word " football " applies to whichever form of football is the most popular in the regional context in which the word appears , including association football , as well as American football , Australian rules football , Canadian football , Gaelic football , rugby league , rugby union and other related games . These variations of football are known as football codes . Various forms of football can be identified in history , often as popular peasant games . Contemporary codes of football can be traced back to the codification of these games at English public schools in the eighteenth and nineteenth century . The influence and power of the British Empire allowed these rules of football to spread to areas of British influence outside of the directly controlled Empire , though by the end of the nineteenth 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 . In 1888 , The Football League was founded in England , becoming the first of many professional football competitions . During the twentieth century , the various codes of football became amongst the most popular team sports in the world . Common elements . The various codes of football share the following common elements : In most codes , there are rules restricting the movement of players " offside " , and players scoring a goal must put the ball either under or over a " crossbar " between the goalposts . Other features common to several football codes include : points being mostly scored by players carrying the ball across the goal line ; and players receiving a " free kick " after they " take a mark or make a fair catch " . Peoples from around the world have played games which involved kicking or carrying a ball , since ancient times . However , most of the modern codes of football have their origins in England . Etymology . There are confilicting explanations of the origin of the word " football " . It is widely assumed that the word " football " ( or " foot ball " ) references the action of the foot kicking a ball . There is an alternative explanation , which is that football originally referred to a variety of games in medieval Europe , which were played " on foot " . There is no conclusive evidence for either explanation . Early history . Ancient games . The Ancient Greeks and Romans are known to have played many ball games , some of which involved the use of the feet . The Roman game " harpastum " is believed to have been adapted from a Greek team game known as " ἐπίσκυρος " ( " Episkyros " ) or " φαινίνδα " ( " phaininda " ) , which is mentioned by a Greek playwright , Antiphanes ( 388 – 311 BC ) and later referred to by the Christian theologian Clement of Alexandria ( c . 150 - c . 215 AD ) . These games appear to have resembled rugby football . The Roman politician Cicero ( 106 – 43 BC ) describes the case of a man who was killed whilst having a shave when a ball was kicked into a barber ' s shop . Roman ball games already knew the air - filled ball , the follis . Documented evidence of an activity resembling football can be found in the Chinese military manual Zhan Guo Ce compiled between the 3rd century and 1st century BC . It describes a practice known as " cuju " ( 蹴鞠 , literally " kick ball " ) , which originally involved kicking a leather ball through a small hole in a piece of silk cloth which was fixed on bamboo canes and hung about 9 m above ground . During the Han Dynasty ( 206 BC – 220 AD ) , cuju games were standardized and rules were established . Variations of this game later spread to Japan and Korea , known as " kemari " and " chuk - guk " respectively . Later , another type of goal posts emerged , consisting of just one goal post in the middle of the field . The Japanese version of " cuju " is " kemari " ( 蹴鞠 ) , and was developed during the Asuka period . 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 . There are a number of references to tradition al , ancient , 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 , a colonist at Jamestown , Virginia recorded a game played by Native Americans , called " Pahsaheman " . On the Australian continent several tribes of indigenous people played kicking and catching games with stuffed balls which have been generalised by historians as " Marn Grook " ( Djab Wurrung for " game ball " ) . The earliest historical account is an anecdote from the 1878 book by Robert Brough - Smyth , " The Aborigines of Victoria " , in which a man called Richard Thomas is quoted as saying , in about 1841 in Victoria , Australia , 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 . " Some historians have theorised that " Marn Grook " was one of the origins of Australian rules football . The Māori in New Zealand played a game called Ki - o - rahi consisting of teams of seven players play on a circular field divided into zones , and score points by touching the ' pou ' ( boundary markers ) and hitting a central ' tupu ' or target . Games played in Mesoamerica with rubber balls by indigenous peoples 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 . Northeastern American Indians , especially the Iroquois Confederation , played a game which made use of net racquets to throw and catch a small ball ; however , although a ball - goal foot game , lacrosse ( as its modern descendant is called ) is likewise not usually classed as a form of " football . " These games and others may well go far back into antiquity . However , the main sources of modern football codes appear to lie in western Europe , especially England . Medieval and early modern Europe . The Middle Ages saw a huge rise in popularity of annual Shrovetide football matches throughout Europe , particularly in England . An early reference to a ball game played in Britain comes from the 9th century " Historia Brittonum " , which describes " a party of boys . . . playing at ball " . References to a ball game played in northern France known as " La Soule " or " Choule " , in which the ball was propelled by hands , feet , and sticks , date from the 12th century . The early forms of football played in England , sometimes referred to as " mob football " , would be played between neighbouring towns and villages , involving an unlimited number of players on opposing teams who would clash " en masse " , struggling to move an item , such as inflated animal ' s bladder to particular geographical points , such as their opponents ' church , with play taking place in the open space between neighbouring parishes . The game was played primarily during significant religious festivals , such as Shrovetide , Christmas , or Easter , and Shrovetide games have survived into the modern era in a number of English towns ( see below ) . The first detailed description of what was almost certainly 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 : 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 . An early reference to a ball game that was probably football comes from 1280 at Ulgham , Northumberland , England : " Henry . . . while playing at ball . . ran against David " . Football was played in Ireland in 1308 , with a documented reference to John McCrocan , a spectator at a " football game " at Newcastle , County Down being charged with accidentally stabbing a player named William Bernard . Another reference to a football game comes in 1321 at Shouldham , Norfolk , England : " [ d ] uring the game at ball as he kicked the ball , a lay friend of his . . . ran against him and wounded himself " . In 1314 , Nicholas de Farndone , Lord Mayor of the City of London issued a decree banning football in the French used by the English upper classes at the time . A translation reads : " [ f ] 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 . 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 . A game known as " football " was played in Scotland as early as the 15th century : it was prohibited by the Football Act 1424 and although the law fell into disuse it was not repealed until 1906 . There is evidence for schoolboys playing a " football " ball game in Aberdeen in 1633 ( some references cite 1636 ) which is notable as an early allusion to what some have considered to be passing the ball . The word " pass " in the most recent translation is derived from " huc percute " ( strike it here ) and later " repercute pilam " ( strike the ball again ) in the original Latin . It is not certain that the ball was being struck between members of the same team . The original word translated as " goal " is " metum " , literally meaning the " pillar at each end of the circus course " in a Roman chariot race . There is a reference to " get hold of the ball before [ another player ] does " ( Praeripe illi pilam si possis agere ) suggesting that handling of the ball was allowed . One sentence states in the original 1930 translation " Throw yourself against him " ( Age , objice te illi ) . King Henry IV of England also presented one of the earliest documented uses 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 : " [ t ] 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 pitch , stating that : " [ t ] he boundaries have been marked and the game had started . Other firsts in the mediæval and early modern eras : 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 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 . 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 . In 1424 , the Parliament of Scotland passed a Football Act that stated " it is statut and the king forbiddis that na man play at the fut ball under the payne of iiij d " – in other words , playing football was made illegal , and punishable by a fine of four pence . 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 ) : " 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 . English public schools . 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 English 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 Herman in 1519 . Herman 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 : 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 Bishop Vesey ' s Grammar School , Sutton Coldfield , 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 were the first to codify football games . In particular , they 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 each school , as is shown by the rules of football from Winchester , Rugby , Harrow and Cheltenham , during between 1810 and 1850 . The first known codes — in the sense of a set of rules — were those of Eton in 1815 and Aldenham in 1825 . ) During the early 19th century , 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 . 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 . The solution to this problem was usually that the match be divided into two halves , one half played by the rules of the host " home " school , and the other half by the visiting " away " school . The " modern " rules of many football codes were formulated during the mid - or late - 19th century . This also applies to other sports such as lawn bowls , lawn tennis , etc . The major impetus for this was the patenting of the world ' s first lawnmower in 1830 . This allowed for the preparation of modern ovals , playing fields , pitches , grass courts , etc . 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 UK school games below ) . Public schools ' dominance of sports in the UK began to wane after the " Factory Act " of 1850 , which significantly increased the recreation time available to working class children . Before 1850 , many British children had to work six days a week , for more than twelve hours a day . From 1850 , they could not work before 6 a . m . ( 7 a . m . in winter ) or after 6 p . m . on weekdays ( 7 p . m . in winter ) ; on Saturdays they had to cease work at 2 p . m . These changes mean that working class children had more time for games , including various forms of football . Firsts . Clubs . Sports clubs dedicated to playing football began in the 18th century , for example London ' s Gymnastic Society which was founded in the mid - 18th century and ceased playing matches in 1796 . The first documented club to bear in the title a reference to being a ' football club ' were called " The Foot - Ball Club " who were located in Edinburgh , Scotland , during the period 1824 – 41 . The club forbade tripping but allowed pushing and holding and the picking up of the ball . Two clubs which claim to be the world ' s oldest existing 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 . Competitions . One of the longest running football fixture is the Cordner - Eggleston Cup , contested between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College , Melbourne every year since 1858 . It is believed by many to also be the first match of Australian rules football , although it was played under experimental rules in its first year . The first football trophy tournament was the Caledonian Challenge Cup , donated by the Royal Caledonian Society of Melbourne , played in 1861 under the Melbourne Rules . The oldest football league is a rugby football competition , the United Hospitals Challenge Cup ( 1874 ) , while the oldest rugby trophy is the Yorkshire Cup , contested since 1878 . The South Australian Football Association ( 30 April 1877 ) is the oldest surviving Australian rules football competition . The oldest surviving soccer trophy is the Youdan Cup ( 1867 ) and the oldest national soccer competition is the English FA Cup ( 1871 ) . The Football League ( 1888 ) is recognised as the longest running Association Football league . The first " ever " international football match took place between sides representing England and Scotland on March 5 , 1870 at the Oval under the authority of the FA . The first Rugby international took place in 1871 . Modern balls . 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 balls 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 of 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 . Modern ball passing tactics . The earliest reference to a game of football involving players passing the ball and attempting to score past a goalkeeper was written in 1633 by David Wedderburn , a poet and teacher in Aberdeen , Scotland . Nevertheless , the original text does not state whether the allusion to passing as ' kick the ball back ' ( ' Repercute pilam ' ) was in a forward or backward direction or between members of the same opposing teams ( as was usual at this time ) " Scientific " football is first recorded in 1839 from Lancashire and in the modern game in Rugby football from 1862 and from Sheffield FC as early as 1865 . The first side to play a passing combination game was the Royal Engineers AFC in 1869 / 70 By 1869 they were " work [ ing ] well together " , " backing up " and benefiting from " cooperation " . By 1870 the Engineers were passing the ball : " Lieut . Creswell , who having brought the ball up the side then kicked it into the middle to another of his side , who kicked it through the posts the minute before time was called " Passing was a regular feature of their style By early 1872 the Engineers were the first football team renowned for " play [ ing ] beautifully together " A double pass is first reported from Derby school against Nottingham Forest in March 1872 , the first of which is irrefutably a " short " pass : " Mr Absey dribbling the ball half the length of the field delivered it to Wallis , who kicking it cleverly in front of the goal , sent it to the captain who drove it at once between the Nottingham posts " The first side to have perfected the modern formation was Cambridge University AFC and introduced the 2 – 3 – 5 " pyramid " formation . 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 " when a player catches the ball directly from the foot " 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 ) . 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 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 " . The code was largely independent of the public school rules , the most significant difference being the lack of an " offside " rule . The code was responsible for many innovations that later spread to association football . These included free kick s , corner kick s , handball , throw - in s and the crossbar . By the 1870s they became the dominant code in the north and midlands of England . At this time a series of rule changes by both the London and Sheffield FAs gradually eroded the differences between the two games until the adoption of a common code in 1877 . Australian rules . Various forms of football were played in Australia during the Victorian gold rush , from which emerged a distinct and locally popular sport . While these origins are still the subject of much debate the popularisation of the code that is known today as Australian Rules Football is currently attributed to Tom Wills . Wills wrote a letter to 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 . This is considered by historians to be a defining moment in the creation of the new sport . Through publicity and personal contacts Wills was able to co - ordinate football matches in Melbourne that experimented with various rules , the first recorded of which occurred on July 31 , 1858 . On 7 August 1858 , Wills umpired a relatively well documented schoolboys match between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College . Following these matches , organised football matches rapidly increased in popularity . Wills and others involved in these early matches formed the Melbourne Football Club ( the oldest surviving Australian football club ) on May 14 , 1859 . The first members included Wills , William Hammersley , J . B . Thompson and Thomas H . Smith . They met with the intention of forming a set of rules that would be widely adopted by other clubs . The backgrounds of the original rule makers makes for interesting speculation as to the influences on the rules . Wills , an Australian of convict heritage was educated in England . He was a rugby football er , a cricketer and had strong links to indigenous Australian s . At first he desired to introduce rugby school rules . Hammersley was a cricketer and journalist who emigrated from England . Thomas Smith was a school teacher who emigrated from Ireland . The committee members debated several rules including those of English public school games . Despite including aspects similar to other forms of football there is no conclusive evidence to point to any single influence . Instead the committee decided on a game that was more suited to Australian conditions and Wills is documented to have made the declaration " No , we shall have a game of our own " . The code was distinctive in the prevalence of the mark , free kick , tackling , lack of an offside rule and that players were specifically penalised for throwing the ball . The Melbourne football rules were widely distributed and gradually adopted by the other Victorian clubs . They were redrafting several times during the 1860s to accommodate the rules of other influential Victorian football clubs . A significant re - write in 1866 by H C A Harrison ' s committee to accommodate rules from the Geelong Football Club made the game , which had become known as " Victorian Rules " , increasingly distinct from other codes . It used cricket fields , a rugby ball , specialised goal and behind posts , bouncing with the ball while running and later spectacular high marking . The form of football spread quickly to other other Australian colonies . Outside of its heartland in southern Australia the code experienced a significant period of decline following World War I but has since grown other parts of the world at an amateur level and the Australian Football League emerged as the dominant professional competition . 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 Freemasons ' 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 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 : At the fifth meeting it was proposed that these two rules be removed . Most of the delegates supported this , but F . M . Campbell , the representative from Blackheath and the first FA treasurer , objected . He said : " hacking is the true football " . However , the motion to ban running with the ball in hand and 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 Association Football . The term " soccer " , in use since the late 19th century , derives from an abbreviation of " Association " . The first FA rules still contained elements that are no longer part of association football , but which are still recognisable in other games ( such as Australian football and rugby 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 ( 13 . 5 metres ) in front of the goal line . Rugby football . 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 ) . 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 . 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 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 FA code occurred , between Princeton and Rutgers . This is also often considered to be the first U . S . game of college football , in the sense of a game between colleges ( although the eventual form of American football would come from rugby , not association football ) . 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 favoured by U . S . 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 U . S . 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 , with some variations . 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 . U . S . colleges did not generally return to soccer until the early 20th century . In 1880 , Yale coach Walter Camp , devised a number of major changes to the American game . Camp ' s two most important rule innovations in establishing American football as distinct from the rugby football games on which it is based are " scrimmage " and " down - and - distance " rules . Scrimmage refers to the practice of starting action by delivering the ball from the ground to another player ' s hand . Camp ' s original rule allowed this delivery to be done only with the feet ; the rule was soon changed to allow the ball to be passed by hand . The rule also established a distinct line of scrimmage which separates the two teams from each other . When a player is tackled , he is ruled down and play stops , while the teams reset on either side of the line of scrimmage . Play then resumes with the delivery of the ball . Teams are given a limited number of downs to achieve a certain distance ( always measured in yard s ) . In American football , teams are given four downs to advance the ball ten yards , after which possession of the ball changes . In Canadian football , teams are allowed three downs to advance ten yards . These rules created a fundamental distinction between the North American codes and rugby codes . Rugby is still fundamentally a continuous - action game , while North American codes are organized around running discrete " plays " , as defined as starting with the delivery from " scrimmage " and ending with the " down " . Criticisms and partial adjustments . American football , in its early years , was an excessively violent game , plagued with several deaths and life - changing injuries every year . The violence became so drastic that President Theodore Roosevelt threatened to shut down the game in 1905 , should rules not be changed to minimize this violence . Several rule changes were put into place that year , but the most enduring has been the introduction of the legal forward pass which opened up the play and , like Camp ' s rule changes of the 1880s , fundamentally changed the nature of the sport . When it became legal to throw the ball forward , an entire new method of advancing the ball emerged . As a result , players became more specialized in their roles , as the different positions on the team required different skill sets . Thus , some players are primarily involved in running with the ball ( the running back ) while others specialize in throwing ( the quarterback ) , catching ( the wide receiver ) , or blocking ( the offensive line ) . With the advent of free substitution rules in the 1940s and 1950s , teams could deploy separate offensive and defensive " platoons " which led to even greater specialization . 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 , today known as Rugby Canada , was not formed until 1965 . ) American football was also frequently described as " rugby " in the 1880s . 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 ) . Schism in Rugby football . 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 England , 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 . Globalisation of association football . 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 " Fédération Internationale de Football Association " ( FIFA ) was founded in Paris on May 21 , 1904 . Its first president was Robert Guérin . The French name and acronym has remained , even outside French - speaking countries . 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 - out s " 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 . Use of the word " football " . 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 . Association football is known generally as " soccer " where other codes of football are dominant , including : the United States , Canada , Australia , and New Zealand . American football is always " football " in the United States . In francophone Quebec , where Canadian football is more popular , the Canadian code is known as " football " and association football is known as " . " Of the 45 national FIFA affiliates in which English is an official or primary language , most currently use " Football " in their organizations ' official names . The FIFA affiliates in Canada and the United States use " Soccer " in their names . A few FIFA affiliates have recently " normalized " to using " Football " , including : Present day codes and families . Association football and descendants . There are also motorsport variations of the game . Irish and Australian varieties . " 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 . " Surviving UK school games . Games still played at UK public ( independent ) schools : Note : although similar with football and volleyball in some aspects , Sepak takraw has ancient origins and cannot be considered an hybrid game .