Football is a family of team sports

Football is a family of team sports that involve to varying degrees kicking a ball with the foot to score a goal. Unqualified the word football is understood to refer to whichever form of football is the most popular in the regional context in which the word appears. Sports commonly called football in certain places include: association football known as soccer in some countries gridiron football specifically American football or Canadian football Australian rules football rugby football either rugby league or rugby union and Gaelic football. These different 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 during the nineteenth century. The expanse of the British Empire allowed these rules of football to spread to areas of British influence outside of the directly controlled Empire. 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 several of the various kinds of football grew to become some of the most popular team sports in the world.

The best football making country in Spain Germany Brazil Portugal. A football is made from four panels sewn together inside out. Two of the panels are punched with holes to accommodate the laces. Once the shell of the ball is assembled it is inverted filled with a rubber bladder laced and finally inflated.

Although the game of football as we know it today supposedly dates back to the nineteenth century there is some evidence to support that the ancient Greeks played a version of football they called harp Aston. This game apparently took place on a rectangular field with goal lines on both ends. Two teams of equal number, but varying player size, were divided by a center line. The game began by throwing the harp Aston or handball into the air. The object of the game was to pass, kick, or run the ball past the opposing team's goal line.

The game next took to the streets. Participants from neighboring towns would meet at a designated point. Still without official rules or methods of keeping score, the bladder or ball would be kicked through the streets. This took place until protests from local shopkeepers forced players to confine their game to a vacant area.

It is here that the rules of the game first took shape. A field much like that used to play soccer was marked with boundaries. The team that kicked the ball over the opponent' s goal line was awarded one point. It also was at this time that the game took on the name of football.

The game remained strictly a kicking game until American collegians blended soccer with rugby. In 1874, McGill University Montreal Canada engaged Harvard University Cambridge Massachusetts in two sports games. One game was played with Canadian rugby rules, which allowed players to run with the ball, as well as throw it. The other game followed U.S. soccer rules, which restricted players to only kicking the ball.

It seemed that Harvard preferred elements of both games and introduced them to Yale University in New Haven Connecticut. Two years later, representatives from Harvard and Yale met in Massachusetts to create guidelines for this new game of football. Another new twist to the game was that it was played with an oval-shaped ball.

The contemporary history of the world's favourite game spans more than 100 years. It all began in 1863 in England, when rugby football and association football branched off on their different courses and the Football Association in England was formed - becoming the sport's first governing body.