Present day codes and families: Irish and Australian varieties

Irish and Australian varieties:

  * Australian rules football  — officially known as "Australian football", and informally as "football", "footy" or "Aussie rules". In some areas (erroneously) referred to as "AFL", which is the name of the main organising body and competition
          o Auskick — a version of Australian rules designed by the AFL for young children
          o Metro footy (or Metro rules footy) — a modified version invented by the USAFL, for use on gridiron fields in North American cities (which often lack grounds large enough for conventional Australian rules matches)
          o Kick-to-kick – informal versions of the game
          o 9-a-side footy — a more open, running variety of Australian rules, requiring 18 players in total and a proportionally smaller playing area (includes contact and non-contact varieties)
          o Rec footy — "Recreational Football", a modified non-contact touch variation of Australian rules, created by the AFL, which replaces tackles with tags
          o Touch Aussie Rules — a non-contact variation of Australian Rules played only in the United Kingdom
          o Samoa rules — localised version adapted to Samoan conditions, such as the use of rugby football fields
          o Masters Australian football (a.k.a. Superules) — reduced contact version introduced for competitions limited to players over 30 years of age
          o Women's Australian rules football — played with a smaller ball and (sometimes) reduced contact version introduced for women's competition
    * Gaelic football — Played predominantly in Ireland. Sometimes referred to as "football" or "gah" [74][75][76]
          o Ladies Gaelic football
    * International rules football — a compromise code used for games between Gaelic and Australian Rules players

 

Present day codes and families: Rugby school football and descendants

Rugby school football and descendants:

    * Rugby football
          o Rugby league — often referred to simply as "league", and usually known simply as "football" or "footy" in the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland.
                + Rugby league nines (or sevens)
                + Touch football (rugby league) — a non-contact version of rugby league. Often called simply "touch", in South Africa it is known as "six down"
          o Rugby union
                + Rugby sevens
                  Rugby sevens; Fiji v Cook Islands at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne
          o Beach rugby — rugby played on sand
          o Touch rugby — generic name for forms of rugby football which do not feature tackles
                + Tag Rugby — a non-contact version of rugby, in which a velcro tag is removed to indicate a tackle
    * Gridiron football
          o American football — called "football" in the United States and Canada, and "gridiron" in Australia and New Zealand. Sometimes called "tackle football" to distinguish it from the touch versions
          o Indoor football, arena football — an indoor version of American football
          o Nine-man football, eight-man football, six-man football — versions of tackle football, played primarily by smaller high schools that lack enough players to field full 11-man teams
          o Touch football (American) — non-tackle American football
                + Flag football — non-tackle American football, like touch football, in which a flag that is held by velcro on a belt tied around the waist is pulled by defenders to indicate a tackle
          o Street football (American) — American football played in backyards without equipment and with simplified rules
          o Canadian football — called simply "football" in Canada; "football" in Canada can mean either Canadian or American football depending on context
                + Canadian flag football — non-tackle Canadian football
                + Nine-man football — similar to nine-man American football, but using Canadian rules; played by smaller schools in Saskatchewan that lack enough players to field full 12-man teams

Present day codes and families: Association football and descendants

Association football and descendants:

An indoor soccer game at an open air venue in Mexico. The referee has just awarded the red team a free kick.

    * Association football, also known as football, soccer, footy and footie
    * Indoor/basketball court varieties of Football:
          o Five-a-side football — played throughout the world under various rules including:
                + Futsal — the FIFA-approved five-a-side indoor game
                + Minivoetbal — the five-a-side indoor game played in East and West Flanders where it is hugely popular
                + Papi fut the five-a-side game played in outdoor basketball courts (built with goals) in Central America.
          o Indoor soccer — the six-a-side indoor game, known in Latin America, where it is often played in open air venues, as fútbol rápido ("fast football")
          o Masters Football six-a-side played in Europe by mature professionals (35 years and older)
    * Paralympic football — modified Football for athletes with a disability.[73] Includes:
          o Football 5-a-side — for visually impaired athletes
          o Football 7-a-side — for athletes with cerebral palsy
          o Amputee football — for athletes with amputations
          o Deaf football — for athletes with hearing impairments
          o Electric wheelchair soccer
    * Beach soccer — football played on sand, also known as beach football and sand soccer
    * Street football — encompasses a number of informal varieties of football
    * Rush goalie — is a variation of football in which the role of the goalkeeper is more flexible than normal
    * Headers and Volleys — where the aim is to score goals against a goalkeeper using only headers and volleys
    * Crab football — players stand on their hands and feet and move around on their backs whilst playing football as normal
    * Swamp soccer — the game is played on a swamp or bog field

Etymology of football

While it is widely assumed that the word "football" (or "foot ball") references the action of the foot kicking a ball, there is a historical explanation, which is that football originally referred to a variety of games in medieval Europe, which were played on foot. These games were usually played by peasants, as opposed to the horse-riding sports (such as polo) often played by aristocrats. There is no conclusive evidence for either explanation, and the word football has always implied a variety of games played on foot, not just those that involved kicking a ball. In some cases, the word football has even been applied to games which have specifically outlawed kicking the ball.

History of football

The game of football is any of several similar team sports, of similar origins which involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball with the foot in an attempt 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 American football, Australian rules football, Canadian football, Gaelic football, rugby league, rugby union and other related games. These variations are known as "codes."