7720728, 253 PM WIKIPEDIA “he Free Encyclopedia Football Football - Wikipecta a 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 (known as soccer in North America, Ireland and Australia); gridiron football (specifically American football or Canadian football); Australian rules football; rugby union and rugby league; and Gaelic football.) These various forms of football share to varying extents 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./2I[3Il4] Contemporary codes of football can be traced back to the codification of these games at English public schools during the 19th century. /5I[6I The expansion and cultural influence of the British Empire allowed these rules of football to spread to areas of British influence outside the directly Gaelic football Several codes of football 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.!) In 1888, The Football League was founded in England, becoming the first of many professional football associations. During the 2oth century, several of the various kinds of football grew to become some of the most popular team sports in the world.[91 Common elements The various codes of football share certain common elements and can be grouped into two main classes of football: carrying codes like American football, Canadian football, Australian football, rugby union and rugby league, where the ball is moved about the field while being held in the hands or thrown, and kicking codes such as Association football and Gaelic football, where the ball is moved primarily with the feet, and where handling is strictly limited.°! htpson wikipedia orghwikiFootball 1407720728, 253 PM Football - Wikipecta Common rules among the sports include:! = Two teams of usually between 11and 18 players; some The action of kicking in (clockwise from upper left) association, gridiron, rugby, and Australian football variations that have fewer players (five or more per team) are also popular. = Aclearly defined area in which to play the game. * Scoring goals or points by moving the ball to an opposing team's end of the field and either into a goal area, or over aline. = Goals or points resulting from players putting the ball between two goalposts. = The goal or line being defended by the opposing team. = Players using only their body to move the ball, i.e. no additional equipment such as bats or sticks. In all codes, common skills include passing, tackling, evasion of tackles, catching and kicking.“°! 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. Etymology There are conflicting explanations of the origin of the word "football". It is widely assumed that the word “football” (or the phrase "foot ball") refers to the action of the foot kicking a ball.{2) There is an alternative explanation, which is that football originally referred to a variety of games in medieval Europe that were played on foot.3! There is no conclusive evidence for either explanation. Early history Ancient games Ancient China ‘The Chinese competitive game cuju (81%8) resembles modern association football."4] It existed during the Han dynasty and possibly the Qin dynasty, in the second and third centuries BC, attested by descriptions in a military manual.!45!l6 The Japanese version of cuju is kemari (#8), and was htpson wikipedia orghwikiFootball 2140