Kicking ball games arose independently multiple times across multiple cultures.[b] The Chinese competitive game cuju (蹴鞠, literally "kick ball"; also known as tsu chu) resembles modern association football.[16] This is the earliest form of the game for which there is scientific evidence, a military manual from the Han dynasty.[17] Cuju players could use any part of the body apart from hands and the intent was to kick a ball through an opening into a net. During the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE), cuju games were standardised and rules were established.[18] The Silk Road facilitated the transmission of cuju, especially the game popular in the Tang dynasty, the period when the inflatable ball was invented and replaced the stuffed ball.[19] Other East Asian games included kemari in Japan and chuk-guk in Korea, both influenced by cuju.[20][21] Kemari originated after the year 600 during the Asuka period. It was a ceremonial rather than a competitive game, and involved the kicking of a mari, a ball made of animal skin.[22] In North America, pasuckuakohowog was a ball game played by the Algonquians; it was described as "almost identical to the kind of folk football being played in Europe at the same time, in which the ball was kicked through goals".[23]
Phaininda and episkyros were Greek ball games.[17][24] An image of an episkyros player depicted in low relief on a stele of c. 375–400 BCE in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens[15] appears on the UEFA European Championship trophy.[25] Athenaeus, writing in 228 CE, mentions the Roman ball game harpastum. Phaininda, episkyros and harpastum were played involving hands and violence. They all appear to have resembled rugby football, wrestling, and volleyball more than what is recognisable as modern football.[18][26][27][28][29][30] As with pre-codified mob football, the antecedent of all modern football codes, these three games involved more handling the ball than kicking it.[31][32]
Association football in itself does not have a classical history.[25] Notwithstanding any similarities to other ball games played around the world, FIFA has described that no historical connection exists with any game played in antiquity outside Europe.[33] The history of football in England dates back to at least the eighth century.[34] The modern rules of association football are based on the mid-19th century efforts to standardise the widely varying forms of football played in the public schools of England.
The "Laws of the University Foot Ball Club" (Cambridge Rules) of 1856
The Cambridge rules, first drawn up at the University of Cambridge in 1848, were particularly influential in the development of subsequent codes, including association football. The Cambridge rules were written at Trinity College, Cambridge, at a meeting attended by representatives from Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester and Shrewsbury schools. They were not universally adopted. During the 1850s, many clubs unconnected to schools or universities were formed throughout the English-speaking world to play various forms of football. Some came up with their own distinct codes of rules, most notably the Sheffield Football Club, formed by former public school pupils in 1857,[35] which led to the formation of a Sheffield FA in 1867. In 1862, John Charles Thring of Uppingham School also devised an influential set of rules.[36]
An early draft of the original hand-written 'Laws of the Game' drawn up on behalf of The Football Association by Ebenezer Cobb Morley in 1863 on display at the National Football Museum, Manchester, England
These ongoing efforts contributed to the formation of The Football Association (The FA) in 1863, which first met on the morning of 26 October 1863 at the Freemasons' Tavern in Great Queen Street, London.[37] The only school to be represented on this occasion was Charterhouse. The Freemasons' Tavern was the setting for five more meetings of The FA between October and December 1863; the English FA eventually issued the first comprehensive set of rules named Laws of the Game, forming modern football.[38] The laws included bans on running with the ball in hand and hacking (kicking an opponent in the shins), tripping and holding.[39] Eleven clubs, under the charge of FA secretary Ebenezer Cobb Morley, ratified the original thirteen laws of the game.[37] The sticking point was hacking, which a twelfth club at the meeting, Blackheath FC, had wanted to keep, resulting in them withdrawing from the FA.[37] Other English rugby clubs followed this lead and did not join the FA, and instead in 1871, along with Blackheath, formed the Rugby Football Union. The FA rules included handling of the ball by "marks" and the lack of a crossbar, rules which made it remarkably similar to Victorian rules football being developed at that time in Australia. The Sheffield FA played by its own rules until the 1870s, with the FA absorbing some of its rules until there was little difference between the games.[40]
The Aston Villa team in 1897, after winning both the FA Cup and the English Football League
The world's oldest football competition is the FA Cup, which was founded by the footballer and cricketer Charles W. Alcock, and has been contested by English teams since 1872. The first official international football match also took place in 1872, between Scotland and England in Glasgow, again at the instigation of Alcock. England is also home to the world's first football league, which was founded in Birmingham in 1888 by Aston Villa director William McGregor.[41] The original format contained 12 clubs from the Midlands and Northern England.[42]
Laws of the Game are determined by the International Football Association Board (IFAB).[43] The board was formed in 1886[44] after a meeting in Manchester of the Football Association, the Scottish Football Association, the Football Association of Wales, and the Irish Football Association. FIFA, the international football body, was formed in Paris in 1904 and declared that they would adhere to the Laws of the Game of the Football Association.[45] The growing popularity of the international game led to the admittance of FIFA representatives to the IFAB in 1913. The board consists of four representatives from FIFA and one representative from each of the four British associations.[46]
For most of the 20th century, Europe and South America were the dominant regions in association football. The FIFA World Cup, inaugurated in 1930, became the main stage for players of both continents to show their worth and the strength of their national teams.[47] In the second half of the century, the European Cup and the Copa Libertadores were created, and the champions of these two club competitions would contest the Intercontinental Cup to prove which team was the best in the world.[48]
In the 21st century, South America has continued to produce some of the best footballers in the world,[49] but its clubs have fallen behind the still dominant European clubs, which often sign the best players from Latin America and elsewhere.[47][49] Meanwhile, football has improved in Africa, Asia and North America,[49] and nowadays, these regions are at least on equal grounds with South America in club football,[50] although countries in the Caribbean and Oceania regions (except Australia) have yet to make a mark in international football.[51][52] When it comes to men's national teams, Europeans and South Americans continue to dominate the FIFA World Cup, as no team from any other region has managed to even reach the final.[47][49] These regional trends do not hold true for the women's game, as the United States women's national team has won the FIFA Women's World Cup four times, more than any other women's team.[53]
Football is played at a professional level all over the world. Millions of people regularly go to football stadiums to follow their favourite teams,[54] while billions more watch the game on television or on the internet.[55][56] A very large number of people also play football at an amateur level. According to a survey conducted by FIFA published in 2001, over 240 million people from more than 200 countries regularly play football.[57] Football has the highest global television audience in sport.[58]
In many parts of the world, football evokes great passions and plays an important role in the life of individual fans, local communities, and even nations. Ryszard Kapuściński says that Europeans who are polite, modest, or humble fall easily into rage when playing or watching football games.[59] The Ivory Coast national football team helped secure a truce to the nation's civil war in 2006[60] and it helped further reduce tensions between government and rebel forces in 2007 by playing a match in the rebel capital of Bouaké, an occasion that brought both armies together peacefully for the first time.[61] By contrast, football is widely considered to have been the final proximate cause for the Football War in June 1969 between El Salvador and Honduras.[62] The sport also exacerbated tensions at the beginning of the Croatian War of Independence of the 1990s, when a match between Dinamo Zagreb and Red Star Belgrade degenerated into rioting in May 1990