Football and Its Fans

Rugby Football ... The game of football that was played at Rugby School between 1750 and 1859 permitted handling of the ball, but players were not allowed to run with it in their hands towards the opposition's goal... 1830 Running with the ball became common in 1830s at Rugby School and Rugby School football became popular throughout the UK in the 1850s and 1860s... 1863 The Football Association (FA) is formed, formalising the schism between the Football Association and Rugby Football...

Cambridge Rules ... Thring, who had both attended Shrewsbury School, succeeded in making some old Etonians join them to form a football club at Cambridge University... In the following year an attempt was made to get up some football in preference to the hockey that was then in vogue...

Passing (association Football) ... The skill of dribbling the ball is seen much less in modern football matches than in the first half of the twentieth century... History of Ball Passing in Football Early History of Ball Passing in Football Main article: Medieval football In 1581 Richard Mulcaster is the first describe "foteball" teams consisting of players using different positions ("standings"), although passing is not stated explicitly... Similarly, in 1650 English puritan Richard Baxter in his book Everlasting Rest: "like a Football in the midst of a crowd of Boys, tost about in contention from one to another"...

Oldest Football Competitions ... Many early football fixtures before the 1850s did not have set rules, clubs or trophies and are poorly documented... Years Date Competition Type First trophy awarded, years Original code Current code Location Notes 1858– 7 August Melbourne Grammar School-Scotch College schools fixture Cordner-Eggleston Cup, 1989– experimental Australian rules football Melbourne, Australia 1860– 26 December - interclub fixture - Sheffield Rules defunct Sheffield, England 1861–1876 December Caledonian Challenge Cup club trophy Caledonian Challenge Cup, 1861–1864 Melbourne Rules defunct Melbourne, Australia 1867 only Youdan Cup club trophy Youdan Cup, 1867 Sheffield Rules defunct Sheffield, England 1868 only Cromwell Cup club trophy Cromwell Cup, 1868 Sheffield Rules defunct Sheffield, England 1871– FA Cup club trophy FA Cup, 1871– Association Football Association...

Laws Of The Game (association Football) ... History and development See also: History of association football Pre-1863 Games which could be described in the most general sense as 'football' had been a popular in Britain since the Medieval period... 1863 rules The Laws were first drawn up by Ebenezer Cobb Morley and approved at a meeting of the newly-founded Football Association (FA) on 8 December 1863... Association football can be considered to begin at this point, as the game played by clubs which didn't adopt the rules evolved into rugby football...

The Football League ... As this sponsor has changed over the years the league has been known in turn as the Canon League, the Today League, the Barclays League, the Endsleigh League, the Nationwide Football League and the Coca-Cola Football League, until the present sponsor npower was adopted in 2010, contracted until 2013... Promotion and relegation between these divisions is a central feature of the League and is further extended to allow the top Championship clubs to exchange places with the lowest placed clubs in the Premier League, and the bottom clubs of League Two to switch with the top clubs of the Football Conference, thus integrating the League into the English football league system...

Laws Of Australian Rules Football ... The laws is an extensive document containing rules and interpretations and is currently managed by the Australian Football League... The first national and international body, the Australasian Football Council, was formed in 1890 to govern Australasian Rules... Since 1990, the rules for the game known as Australian football have been governed by the AFL and the organisation's Laws of the Game committee...

History Of American Football ... American football resulted from several major divergences from rugby, most notably the rule changes instituted by Walter Camp, considered the "Father of American Football"... The popularity of collegiate football grew as it became the dominant version of the sport in the United States for the first half of the 20th century... The origin of professional football can be traced back to 1892, with William "Pudge" Heffelfinger's $500 contract to play in a game for the Allegheny Athletic Association against the Pittsburgh Athletic Club...

Baseball In The United Kingdom ... One milestone of baseball in the United Kingdom was the 1938 victory of Great Britain over the United States to win the inaugural World Cup of Baseball. At present Today, there are more than 40 baseball teams, 875 adult and Junior (Under 18) players ranging geographically from Croydon to Liverpool, Portsmouth to Edinburgh...

Oldest Football Clubs ... Other early clubs include the Great Leicestershire Cricket and Football Club present in 1840 In 1841 two clubs are documented in a contemporary challenge to play "foot-ball" in Lancashire: "The Body-Guard club" (Rochdale) and the "Fear-noughts Club" A club for playing "cricket, quoits and football" was established in Newcastle on Tyne in or before 1848... The Surrey Football Club was established in 1849 and published the first non-school football list of rules (which were probably based upon the eighteenth century Gymnastic Society cited above) Continuous clubs It is claimed that the Barnes Club (later Barnes Rugby Football Club), from Barnes in London, was formed in 1839 and is the oldest club to have played football for its entire history... It is also argued, and supported by the Guinness Book of Records, that Guy's Hospital Football Club, founded by staff at Guy's Hospital in London in 1843, is the oldest club...

Women's Association Football ... The growth in women's football has seen major competitions being launched at both national and international level... (For more information, see Women's association football around the world and International competitions in women's association football respectively.) Women's football has faced many struggles throughout its fight for right... Although women's football had its first golden age in the UK in the early 1920s, when some matches achieved over 50,000 spectators, this was stopped on 5 December 1921 when England's Football Association voted to ban the game from grounds used by its member clubs...

Australian Rules Football ... The objective of the game is to score points by passing the ball through the opponent's goal. The main way to score points is by kicking the ball between the two major goal posts...

Attempts To Ban Football Games ... Between 1314 and 1667, football was officially banned in England alone by more than 30 royal and local laws... 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 (grosses pelotes de pee) 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, and after the great loss of life that had occurred during the Black Death, England needed as many archers as possible...

Sport ... Sport is generally recognised as activities which are based in physical athleticism or physical dexterity, with the largest major competitions such as the Olympic Games admitting only sports meeting this definition, and other organisations such as the Council of Europe using definitions precluding activities without a physical element from classification as sports. However, a number of competitive, but non-physical, actvities claim recognition as mind sports...

Sheffield Rules ... The first inter-club football match and competitive tournament were both played using Sheffield Rules... Background The oldest recorded football match in Sheffield occurred in 1794 when a game of mob football was played between Sheffield and Norton (at the time a Derbyshire village) that took place at Bents Green...

Ball In And Out Of Play ... The restarts in football are: Kick-off: following a goal by the opposing team, or to begin each period of play...

Association Football Around The World ... Africa (CAF) Country Overview National team List of clubs National association Main league competition (s) Main cup competition (s) Supercup match Algeria Overview National team Clubs Fédération Algérienne de Football Championnat National Algerian Cup Algerian Super Cup Angola Overview National team Clubs Federação Angolana de Futebol Girabola Taça de Angola SuperTaça Benin Overview National team Clubs Fédération Béninoise de Football Premier League Benin Cup Botswana Overview National team Clubs Botswana Football Association Mascom Premier League FA Challenge Cup Burkina Faso Overview National team Clubs Fédération Burkinabé de Foot-Ball Premier League Coupe du Faso SuperCup Burundi Overview National team Clubs Fédération de Football du Burundi Premier League Burundian Cup Cameroon Overview National team Clubs Fédération Camerounaise de Football...

Association Football Pitch ... Note that due to the original formulation of the Laws in England and the early supremacy of the four British football associations within IFAB, the standard dimensions of a football pitch were originally expressed in imperial units...

List Of Association Football Competitions ... National teams FIFA World Cup FIFA Women's World Cup FIFA Confederations Cup Military World Cup Military World Games Rous Cup (defunct) National youth teams FIFA U-20 World Cup (under-20 men) FIFA U-17 World Cup (under-17 men) FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup (under-20 women) FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup (under-17 women) Malta International Tournament (each 2 years) Clubs FIFA Club World Cup Intercontinental Cup (defunct) Afro-European UEFA-CAF Meridian Cup Arab National teams Arab Cup of Nations Pan Arab Games Gulf Cup of Nations Clubs Arabian Champions' League Arab Cup Winners' Cup (1989–2001) Arab Super Cup Gulf Club Cup Afro-Asian Afro-Asian Cup of Nations (1985–1999) Afro-Asian Club Competition (1985–1997) Asian-European Commonwealth of Independent States Cup AFC (Asian competitions) This section lists the competitions ruled by the, Asian Football Confederation, or by federations member...