History of football

History of  football

 History of  football .It might sound surprising, but football has a long an fascinating history, according to sources it has been found thatthe sport was first introduced in 1170 in an account which describes a group of youngsters going to play the ‘game of ball’. Traits of the game can be tracked backto China in second and third century BC. Records taken from themilitary books describe the Chinese playing a gamewhich was an exercise known as Tsu’Chu wherethe players used a ball made of leather stuffedwith hair and feathers. The main aim of the game was to putthe ball into the net fixed on bamboo sticks and at the same timedefend the mselves from attacks. 

Variants of the game were also found indocumentations of Greek and Egyptian society which proves that the game hasbeen played through the ancient history. The English used an animal bladderfor the ball which was inflated. People were getting infatuated with thegame and in 1300’s Edward II had to impose ban on playing the game as people stoppedpractising archery and played football; archery was important for war. Edward II was not theonly one to ban the game; Edward III, Oliver Cromwell and Henry IV also followed his footsteps and banned football.

Henry 

 The game was not lost andre-emerged and continued to grow in acceptance, principallyamid the waged classes, playing football was achance for them to socialize with people who belongedto the same class. Since there were no referees or anyrules the players often got into fights and took is personally most of the timesand carried their grudges outside the field and destroyed each other’shomes, property and business. One of the causes was toomany players in a field; it often reached to 1000. The problem rose so much that in1830 highway act was passed, which stated that anyone playing footballon the highways would be fined. Addiction to football roseabove the divisions of society and in the 18th centurybecame famous at schools. This became the background for creationof certain set of rules for the game. A meeting of 1848 at Cambridgefinalized the rules delineating throw ins, goal kicks and goalies rightswhich are still in use today. These were stepping stonesto the rise of football club teams and bigger nationaland international events. 

Oliver Cromwell

The English have played animportant role in the widespread of the game, in its presentinitiation, across the globe. The first match to be held outsideEurope was in 1867, Argentina which was hosted by many Britishwho worked abroad in those days. Initially played solely bymen the women have also been playing the game fromthe end of19th century. The game became quite famous atthe time of World War I when women took over the jobs whichwere always done by men. Women who worked in industrial labouralways met together to play the game. A women’s team from Preston was the first to enter into an internationalgame against Paris. The Football Association consideredwomen’s football to be incongruous and there was a ban on the game forsome time after the World War I.

 The English Women’s FA removedthe ban in 1971, since then the game has become popular in Britain and other countries. Teams like Everton, Arsenaland Chelsea have female teams who play both for homeand international games. The game has also been associatedby disasters of 1985 and 1989 the Heysel Stadium disaster and Hillsborough disaster respectively. Football has come a long way from itsmodest beginnings many years ago. The Game The game of football involves twoteams with eleven players each; the players use all parts of their body except their hands and arms to navigate the ball intothe goal of the opposite team. They are allowed to use their hands for athrow-in only and on the field they use their feet to kick the ball, their upperpart of legs, torso and even their head. Team which scores the most number of goalsis declared the winner of the match. A match will last 90 minutesand if there is a tie the match is extended to extratime (two times 15 minutes). A penalty shoot decides the winner if thematch is still a tie after the extra time.

 The rules were set by The Football Association, England in 1863 but the rules have been modifiedseveral times since then. International Football Association Board controls the laws of Football now and half of the members of the board are FIFA representatives. FIFA is the international governingbody of football and are also responsible for organising the mostsignificant event - FIFA World Cup. The event is held after every four years and men’s national team of memberstates play for the cup. Football hardly requiresanything to play which is why it is co commonamong the kids also. You just require an open space, somethingto mark goal-posts and a ball. 

The kids and teens enjoythe games on streets, school playgrounds,parks and beaches. To take it to a higher levelone needs to be trained by trainers who arecertified with ‘Nasm ces’, there are a few things whichare important besides a pair of shorts and a t-shirt, aplayer should have shin guards, football boots with studs on the out-soleand a goalkeeper needs a pair of gloves. People have bought variations inthe game for fun and enjoy it as indoor football, beach football,five-a-side football and Futsal. Early History Ancient Games The Romans and Ancient Greeks played anumber of ball games using their feet. The Roman game known as ‘harpastum’ has beenmentioned in one of the Greek playwrights, Antiphanes in 388-311 BC,the name reoccurs in the Christian theology‘ Clement of Alexandria’. 

The game seemed to besimilar to rugby football. Cicero, a Roman politician describeshow a man was killed while having a shave in the barbersshop when the ball hit him. The Romans were aware of the ballsfilled with air and called them ‘follis’ The Chines were aware of such ball gamesin the second and third centuries in the rule of Han dynasty and called thegame as ‘Cuju’ or ‘Zuqiu’ or ‘Tsu’Chu’. The Japanese called it ‘kemari’ andit became famous in the Asuka period. The game was played in the Imperial court of Japan in 600 AD. Several people stood in a circle and kickeda ball without dropping it on the ground. The game disappeared somewhere in the 19th century but was revived once again in 1903 and continues to be played tilldate in important Japanese festivals. There are many accounts ofball games being played by people of the ancient times invarious parts of the world. 

For instance an explorer name John Davis played football in 1586 with his men and the Eskimos of Greenland where his ship landed. There are records of the game beingplayed by the Eskimos on ice. In 1610, a colonist of Jamestown, Virginiaby the name of William Strachey recorded an account of a game played by the nativeIndians which they called ‘Pahsaheman’. Historians described Marn Grookto be played by many tribes of Australia, they played severalgames with a stuffed ball; which they used to catch and kick. The most recent record is froma book by Robert Brough Smyth written in 1878 known as‘The Aborigines of Victoria’ where a known as Richard Thomashas witnessed the Aboriginal tribes playing ball in 1841in Victoria, Australia. The ball was made of possum skin. Ki-o-rahi was a game played by Maoripeople of New Zealand where there were seven players in a playground andthe ground was divided into zones. One could score if the ytouched the boundary markers or ‘pou’ and if you hitthe main target ‘tupu. The Mesoamericans playedwith rubber balls but these games resemble the modern volleyball or basketball. 

The ‘Iroquois’ who were the North-eastern Americans also used ball to play but they used netraquets to throw and catch a ball, even though there was useof leg in the game, it was not classified underthe modern football. There are many ball games which trail farback to the ancient times but the main sources of the modern football code pointto Western Europe, specifically England. Medieval and Early Modern Europe The middle ages saw football gain much popularity in Shrovetide (ShroveTuesday which was marked by eating pancakeson this day) football matches all over Europe,especially in England. 

Reference of a ball game being playedin early Britain comes from 9th century in ‘Historia Brittonum’ which explainshow some boys were playing with a ball. The French also have a few references of thegame in the 12th century and was referred to as ‘La Soule or Choule’, people usedfeet, hands and sticks to propel the ball. From 1174 to 1183 WilliamFitzStephen described how ‘mob football’ was prevalent among the people of England. This involved unlimited people of twoneighbouring towns playing in teams and who moved something which was usuallyan inflated bladder or an animal, this inflated item was usuallytaken to geographical places like the oppositeteams church etc. FitzStephen described thegame to have taken place on a Shrove Tuesday whichwas an annual festival.

 There are many references whichspeak of a ball game but none of them specify that the ball waskicked about to play the game. The Lord Mayor of City ofLondon, Nicholas de Farndone, released a ban on thegame of football in 1314. This is the first referencewhich uses the term ‘football’. King Edward III of England used asame ban in 1363, and included other games such as coursing, cock-fighting,hockey, football and handball. The use of term handball makes itclear that football was different from other games which used otherparts of the body like - handball. Football faced the same fatein Scotland as it did in England and was banned underthe Football Act 1424. King Henry the IV of England also resentedthe game and forbade the game in 1409. There are many other references frommedieval and modern eras some of them are: Football was first mentioned as aball rather than a game in 1486. Its reference can be found in ‘Book of St.Albans’ written by Dame Juliana Berner. In 1526, King Henry VII of England hadordered a pair of football boots. Philip Sidney describedwomen involved in the game in one of hispoems written in 1580. John Norden and Richard Carew in1584 and 1602 respectively refer to ‘goals’ and Carew also describedhow the goals were made. 

He was also the first to describehow goalkeepers defended their posts and about the passingof ball among the players. John Day’s play ‘TheBling Beggar of Bethnal Green’ first refersto scoring a goal. The play was performed in 1600but published only in 1659. Calcio Fiorentino The citizens of Florence gottogether in Piazza Santa Croce and celebrated the timebetween Epiphany and Lent by playing ‘calcio storico’(historic kickball), in the 16th century. The young grandees dressedup in fine clothes and indulged themselvesin the intense game. The calcio players could kick, hitwith shoulder and punch their opponents but such moves werenot permitted below the belt. The game was originally playedas a military exercise. 

The game of footballwas not played from January, 1739 and wasrevived only in May, 1930. Disapproval and Attempts to Ban Football Football has faced severalrestrictions through the history starting frommiddle ages to modern day. The first ban was placed inEngland in 1314, and there were more than 30 bans afterthat from 1314 to 1667. Women were discouraged from playing thegame and were forbidden to play and in 1921 were forbidden to play in the Scottishand English Football League grounds. The order was removed onlyin 1970, females continue to face problems in many partsof the world till today. Establishment of Modern Codes English Public Schools Football was famous throughout Britainbut its public schools have been accredited with four main achievementsin the codes of modern football. 

a) According to evidences publicschools played an important role in making the game from a mob-played oneto an organised team played game. b) Students of these schools had describedmuch about the game in their records. c) The teachers, formerstudents and students of the schools codified the gameto be played among schools. d) The terms ‘kicking’and ‘running’ were first made clear in the footballgames of the schools. A student from the Eton College,Richard Mulcaster was known as the “greatest sixteenthcentury advocate football”. His evidences provide proofto organized football and also refer to teams,position, referee and coach. The violent version offootball was a more organized ‘footeball’,according to Mulcaster. 

A Latin book under the name ‘Vocabula’written in 1633, by a teacher from Aberdeen, David Wedderburn containsmany elements of modern football. A more detailed versionwas found in the ‘Book of Games’ by FrancisWillughby written in 1660. His book also includes a diagramdepicting a football field. The first offside ruleswere made in 18th century. Earlier according to this the objectiveof the players was to stand between the ball and the goal and was not permittedto pass the ball by hand or foot. They could move the ball in ascrum or dribble with their feet. This offside law beganto change and develop with time and it wasdifferent for every school as was found in referencesof schools from Harrow, Rugby, Winchester and Cheltenhambetween 1810 and 1850. In the 19th century the Britishworked for twelve hours for six days in a week andmost of the children worked. This led to decline in thestreet game and school boys who did not work organised the gamewith formal codes of rules. Football was encouraged in the youthand every school had different set of rules and two thoughts ofschools developed in terms of rules; one played the game by dribblingand kicking the ball played by schools of Westminster,Eton, Harrow and Charter house whereas the other school permittedthe ball to be carried and was in practice by schools ofMarlborough, Rugby and Cheltenham.

 Development of transportationthrough rail in the 1840’s gave way tointer-school competitions. However since there were differentrules in various schools the students were unable to playthe game against each other. As a solution half of the matchwas played by the rules of the home school and the otherhalf by the visiting school. Firsts Clubs Clubs dedicated to football like theLondon’s Gymnastic Society was founded. During 1824 to 1841, the firstclub bearing the title with reference to being a football club was ‘The Foot-Ball Club’. The club was situatedin Edinburgh

Scotland. The club encouragedholding, pushing and picking up of ball butdiscouraged tripping. Competitions One of the longest known competitionswhich still seems to be running since 1858 every year is for thecontest for Cordner-Eggleston Cup. The match is played between Scotch College,Melbourne and Melbourne Grammar School. The Caledonian Challenge Cup was the first football trophy tournament played in 1861 under Melbourne rules and the cup was donated bythe Royal Caledonian Society of Melbourne. United Hospitals Challenge Cup is the oldest football league is a rugby football competition played since 1874 and Yorkshire Cup is the oldest rugby trophy which is being playedfor since 1878. Established on 30 April, 1877South Australian Football Association is the oldest Australianrules football competition. Youdan Cup is the oldest soccer trophy whichstill survives since 1867 and standing strong since 1871 is English FA Cup which is the oldest soccer competition. The longest running Association Football league is ‘The Football League’ since 1888. On 5 March 1870 the firstinternational football match took place between Scotland and England at the Oval. Modern Balls Earlier the footballs weremade of inflated pig bladders. Covers made of leather were used in thelater years to give the ball their shape. Shoemakers, William Gilbert and Richard Lindon from Rugby displayed round and oval shaped balls in the Great Exhibition of 1851 held in London. 

Linden was also acknowledgedwith the making of ‘brass hand pump’ and ‘rubber inflatablebladder’, he won several medals. U.S. inventor Charles Good year made aball with an exterior of vulcanized rubber panels and exhibited in the Exhibition Universelle at Paris. The normally used balls with pentagonsand hexagon gained its popularity very recently in the 1960’s and wasfirst used in 1970, World Cup. Modern Ball Passing Tactics First records of ‘scientific football’have been found in Lancashire in 1839 and in the modern game of Rugbyin 1862 and Sheffield FC in 1865. The first to play a passing game werethe Royal Engineers AFC in 1870, they became famous by 1872 as a team whoplayed the game together beautifully. March, 1872 records the first double pass from Derby school playing against Nottingham Forest. The 2-3-5 pyramid formation was firstperfected by the cambridge University AFC. 

cambridge University 

Cambridge Rules A meeting was called at Trinity College at the Cambridge University in 1848, byJ.C.Thring and H.de Winton. The meeting comprised of12 representatives from Rugby, Eton, Shrewsbury,Harrow and Winchester. The meeting lasted for eighthours and the first set of modern football rules wereformed known as Cambridge rules. There is a revised set of rulesfound in Shrewsbury School in 1856. The game allowed kicking and handlingof the ball was permitted only if a player caught the ball directly from thefoot which earned them a free kick. Another offset rulediscouraged the players from roaming around nearthe opponent’s goal. The Cambridge rules werenot popular outside the schools anduniversities of the English but had the most important impact onthe committee members of Football Association who were liable to draftthe rules of Association football. 

Sheffield Rules Nathaniel Creswick and WilliamPrest founded the Sheffield Football Club in 1857 inthe city of Sheffield. The club played football according to Sheffield rules initially and theylacked an off side rule. Some innovations which were introducedto football by Sheffield Football Club were corner kicks, free kicks,crossbar, handball and throw-ins. Their code dominated the northand midlands of Europe. Australian Rules Traces of an organised football game in Australia are found in Mebourne,Victoria, in 1858 when Tom Willis whowas an Australian but learnt in Rugby School,England wrote a letter, for a football club with a set of code oflaws to keep the cricketers busy in winters, to Bell’s Life in Victoriaand Sporting Chronicle. The first match was played between Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar School on 31 July, 1858; the match was umpiredby Tom Willis himself. 

On 14 May, 1859 Willisalong with Thomas H.Smith, William Hammersley andJ.B.Thompson formed the Melbourne Football Club, which is also the oldest surviving football club in Australia. The rules of the club were distributedwidely and many other clubs adopted them. The game spread far andwide but saw a significant decline during the World War I but soon came out emergent and now Australian Football League is one of the world’s leadingprofessional competitions. Football Association An important figure in the formation of Cambridge rules, J.C.Thring formed his own set of rules in 1862 and called them ‘The Simplest Game’or ‘The Uppingham Rules’. A committee comprisingof seven members revised the Cambridge rules in1863, the members were all former studentsfrom schools of Rugby, Harrow, Westminster, Eton,Shrewsbury and Rugby.

 On 26 October, 1863many representatives of different football associations of London met at the Free mason’s Tavern,this was the initial meeting of The Football Association (FA). The association aimed on unifyingthe code, there were many public schools who were requestedto join the association. Upphingham and Charter house were the only ones who joined. From October 1863 to December1863 there were many meetings in which many lawswere added and removed and finally on 8 December, 1863 FA releasedthe ‘Laws of Football’ which was the first complete set of rules for football andwas later known as Association Football. The initial FA rulescontained many elements which are no longerin use however; they are still followed in many games likerugby football and Australian football. Rugby Football There were more than 75clubs all together by 1870 in Britain who playedvariations of rugby. There were rugby clubs in Canada,New Zealand, Ireland and Australia. 

Despite the number of clubs there wereno fixed rules for playing rugby. In 1871, 21 rugby clubs from London for med the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and the first set of off icialrules was adopted in June, 1871. The rules permitted the passing of ball. North American Football Codes Students of universities and North-American schools played football among themselves. For instance, a game known as Old division football was commonly played by the students of Dartmouth Collegein New Hampshire, in the 1820’s. This was a variant ofassociation football codes. Like Britain, mob-style football was common and the players had to lead the ball to the goal area andwould use any means to do it. They pushed, punched, kicked and usedall sorts of violent ways to do so and on doing so there were many casualtiesand injured players on the playground. 

The violence of the gamesled to protests and universities were pressurizedto ban the game. Yale and Harvard Universities were forced toban the game by city of New Haven and the game was shut down in 1860 and 1861 in Yaleand Harvard universities respectively. To substitute football there were kicking and running games introducedand a combination of the two games was the ‘Boston Game’which was played by Oneida Football Club. Many historians considerthis club to be the first official club of football inthe United States of America. The club was founded in 1862, by schoolboys who played the game on Boston Common. The game found its way back to schooland college grounds by 1860’s and Rutgers, Brown, Yale and Princeton allstarted to play this kicking game. The rules of English Football Associationwere used by Princeton to play the game. The first football match to bedocumented was on 9 November, 1861 and was a practice game played at University of Toronto, Canada. One of the players ofthe game was the late Chancellor of the school,Sir William Mulock.

 Fredrick A Bethune, Barlow Cumberland and Christopher Gwen drafted the rules based on rugby football,in 1864 at Trinity College. In 1868, Canada, a gamewhich resembled rugby football was taken up byMontreal Football Club. The first intercollegiate football of America was played between Princeton and Rutgerson 6 November, 1869. The players used a round ball for thegame and the rules were improvised. played by North Americatoday is mainly based on the match played between Harvard Universityand Mc Gill University in 1874. The players of both sideschanged between McGill and Boston rules whichwere used by Harvard. After some years Harvard wasfollowing the rules of McGill and convinced the otheruniversities to follow them too.

 A meeting was called in Springfield, Massachusetts at Massasoit Conventionon 23 November, 1876 and representatives of Princeton,Harvard, Columbia and Yale together agreed to adopt the Rugby Football Union rules with a few changes. Walter Camp, coach of Yalewho was the fixture at Massasoit House conventionbought in many changes in 1880 and two of the mostsignificant changes which differentiated rugbyfrom American game was that the ‘scrummage’ wasreplaced with the ‘line of scrimmage’ and ‘down-and-distant’rules were created. Despite the changes American football continued to be played violently causing severalcasualties and even death at times. The acting President of United States of America, President Theodore Roosevelt called ameeting on 9 October, 1905 where the representatives from Princeton, Hale and Harvard were summoned and advised to makeradical changes in the game. One of such rules introduced on1906 was ‘legal forward pass’. This was the mostinfluential changes brought about which affected themodern game of football.

 American football was developed by the Canadians in order to differentiate the game from one which was more rugby oriented. Ontario Rugby Football Union implementedthe Burnside rules in 1903 which used down-and-distant system and line ofscrimmage from the American Football. In 1929, the also applied thelegal forward pass in the game. The football codes of Canada and America are both different. Gaelic Football In County Kerry, Ireland‘caid’ a form of traditional football was popularduring the 19th century. According to Father W. Ferris, there weretwo types of ‘caid’ played in the country: a. First was the ‘field game' where theplayers aimed on putting the through goals which looked like arch’s and weremade from the boughs of two trees. b. The other was the‘cross country game’ was played on a Sunday andlasted an entire day. The team that took the ball acrossthe boundaries of the parish won. Carrying the ball,wrestling, opposing players, and holdingeverything was allowed. Association ball and rugby becamepopular games by the 1870’s in Ireland and Trinity College ofDublin had a good hold on Rugby. The set of rules laidby the English Football Association had spreadwide and the ancient forms of ‘caid’ gave wayto a more rough game which permitted the playersto trip each other.

 The Irish did not make any attempts tocodify and unify the different variations of football till the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) was established in 1884. The GAA promoted many Irishsports including hurling and demotivated foreign games like Association football and Rugby. Maurice Davin first drew a set ofGaelic football rules and got it published in the Irish magazine ‘United Ireland’ on the 7 February, 1887. The rules laid by Davin wereinfluenced by many Irish games and wish to solemnize a separateIrish code of football. A prominent example of this wasthat an offside rule was missing; this was an element whichwas common only among the Irish and Australianfootball players. 

Schism in Rugby Football After the International Rugby Football Board(IRFB) was established in 1886, the code started being eroded as professionalismcrept into the different football codes. In the 1890’s there was a long termban placed on professional players of England, this caused tension andturmoil within rugby football, as there were many playerswho lived in Northern England and belongedto the working class and could not spare time to travel, playthe game and recuperate from their wounds. The same situation arose tenyears back in soccer in Northern England but the reaction of the authorities was quite different, who tries to estrange the working class support in Northern England. After a disagreement which rose in 1895,about a player who received broken wages was, this substituted wageslost as an effect of playing rugby, representatives of thenorthern clubs got together to form Northern Rugby Football Union (NRFU).

 The new club earlier allowed only differenttypes of player wages replacements but in two years NRFU players were remuneratedprovided they were employed outside the sport. The professional associationverbalized that rugby needed to becomea ‘spectator’ sport. In a few years the NRFU rulesstarted separating from the RFU and the most noted one was theelimination of ‘line-out’ and ‘ruck’ was replaced by ‘play-the-ballruck’ with which two players could compete between the tacklerat marker and the player tackled. If the ball carrier washeld the ‘mauls’ were stopped was replaced bya play-the ball-ruck. In 1901, Northern Rugby League was formed when Yorkshire and Lancashirecompetitions of NRFU combined, this was alsothe first time that the word ‘rugby league’ wasformally used in England. 

With time the RFU form of rugby playedby clubs that continued to be members of national federations affiliatedto IRFB were known as ‘rugby union’. Globalization of ‘association football’ As the international matches gained popularitythe necessity of one single community to look after the affairs of association football had become obvious by the 20th century. Many dialogues took place among the English Football Association members on forming an international body butwas apparently going unnoticed. Associations from seven other European countries then formed an international association andthe countries comprised of; Netherlands, France, Switzerland,Sweden, Belgium, Spain and Denmark. ‘Fédération Internationale de Football Association’ or the much known FIFA was established on 21 May, 1904 in Paris with Robert Guerin as its first president. 

History of football  

The name and acronym hassustained throughout the globe ever sinceits formation. Divergence of Two Rugby Codes The rules of rugby deviatedin 1906 from the ‘rugby union’ as the team reducedfrom 15 players to 13 players. An official Australianrugby team toured Britain and Australia in 1907and the got a great response from the crowd,after which official rugby leagues were launchesin Australia from 1908. Every country had theirown set of rules and different bodies wererequired to get together and create an exact setof rules which would be applicable for everyinternational match. The situation continued as it was till1948, when Rugby League International Federation (RLIF) was formed in Bordeaux,after it was initiated by the French League. Latter part of 20th century saw morechanges in the rules and in 1996, the idea of ‘downs’ was taken from the American football by the rugby league officials. The rule stated that a teamwould be permitted to keep the ball for four tackles (rugbyunion follows the initial rule which states that a playerwho has been tackled and put to ground should letgo of the ball instantly). 

In 1971, this number wasincreased from four to six and was known as the ‘six tacklerule’ in the rugby league. By 1990’s the game had full time players and the five meter off-side distance between the twoteams was increased to 10 meters. The replacement rule was surpassedby many changes in rules. 20th century also saw changesin the laws of ‘rugby union’; the changes were considerably lessas compared to the rugby league. Some of the changes being that the goalsfrom marks were removed, anyone kicking directly into touch from outside the22 metre line would get a penalty, many new laws were created to decide whohad the custody following an indecisive ‘maul’ or ‘ruck’ and the lifting of players in line-outs was made official. Rugby union was made an ‘open’game in 1995, which means any professional playerswere allowed to participate. Even though the actual difference amongthe two codes have now disappeared and the fact that officials from both rugby league and rugby union have mentioned about the probability of theirunion, the rules of both the codes and have deviated so much that an occurrenceas such cannot be seen in the near future. 

Use of Word Football The term ‘football’ when used torefer a particular game could mean any one of the gameswhich have been defined above and because of this muchfriendly disputes have risen over the use of the word ‘football’, mainly because it isused in diverse ways in various parts of the English-speaking world’. The term ‘football’ is normally used torefer to the code of football which is governing that specific area so it normally depends on where one uses the word. In United Kingdom, Canada and United States of America the code is simply known as ‘football’ whereas in otherplaces there is usually a qualifier. In Australia the term ‘football’ iseither rugby league or Australian rules football, depending uponthe popularity of the region. In New Zealand it has beentraditionally known as rugby union and lately been referredto as association football. The Canadian code is ‘football’ where as the American football is referred to as ‘Football américain’ and association football is called ‘le soccer’. English is the official languageof the FIFA and among the 45 affiliates most of them use‘Football’ in their organizations; Canada and United States use the word ‘Soccer’. There are many FIFA affiliates whoare now using ‘Football’ like: In 2005 Australian’sassociation football changed its name from‘soccer’ to ‘football’ New Zealand’s governing body followed Australia and in 2007 started using‘ football since then.

Samoa Soccer Federation’ changed to‘Football Federation Samoa’ in 2009. Popularity There are many codeswhich have gained their popularity over the yearsin the world of sports. Association football has more than 250million players across more than 200 nations of the world and is the mostwatched game on television in sports. The annually played SuperBowl is one of the most popular sportsenjoyed by the Americans and is among the top eight most watchedbroadcasts in the history of U.S. television, making association football themost popular game in America. The highest number of people watching football in Australia is the Australian rules football. Gaelic football captures the heartof Irish people and the All-Ireland Football Final is one of the mostwatched events of the country. 

What started from a smallinflated intestine of an animal has journeyed its wayto fame and popularity. What was played forfun, enjoyment and physical exercise has nowbecome professional. There was a time when the players hadto fight so they could be paid and today players of football are someof the richest people in the world. Football players today arestars and role-models for thousands of youngsters whoaspire to be just like them. From disputes to bans and out in the fieldagain, the game has endured all hardships and now shines in the world entertaining millions of people all over the globe. 

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