[custom_adv] Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball 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. [custom_adv] 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. [custom_adv] There are a number of references to traditional, ancient, or prehistoric ball games played by indigenous peoples in many different parts of the world. Contemporary codes of football can be traced back to the codification of these games at English public schools during the nineteenth century. [custom_adv] The expansion of the British Empire allowed these rules of football to spread to areas of British influence outside the directly controlled Empire. [custom_adv] 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. [custom_adv] These different variations of football are known as football codes. There are a number of references to traditional, ancient, or prehistoric ball games played by indigenous peoples in many different parts of the world. [custom_adv] Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played with a spherical ball between two teams of eleven players. [custom_adv] It is played by 250 million players in over 200 countries and dependencies, making it the world's most popular sport. [custom_adv] The object of the game is to score by moving the ball beyond the goal line into the opposing goal.Association football is one of a family of football codes, which emerged from various ball games played worldwide since antiquity. [custom_adv] The modern game traces its origins to 1863 when the Laws of the Game were originally codified in England by The Football Association. [custom_adv] Players are not allowed to touch the ball with hands or arms while it is in play, except for the goalkeepers within the penalty area. Other players mainly use their feet to strike or pass the ball, but may also use any other part of their body except the hands and the arms.
