FOOTBALL

Football is the name given to a number of different team sports. The most popular of these world-wide is association football, also known as soccer. The English language word "football" is also applied to gridiron football (which includes American football and Canadian football), Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby football (rugby league and rugby union), and related games. Each of these codes (specific sets of rules, or the games defined by them) is referred to as "football".

These games involve:

* a large spherical or prolate spheroid ball, which is itself called a football.
* a team scoring goals and/or points, by moving the ball to an opposing team's end of the field and either into a goal area, or over a line.
* the goal and/or line being defended by the opposing team.
* players being required to move the ball mostly by kicking and — in some codes — carrying and/or passing the ball by hand.
* goals and/or points resulting from players putting the ball between two goalposts.
* offside rules, in most codes, restricting the movement of players.
* in some codes, points are mostly scored by players carrying the ball across the goal line.
* in most codes players scoring a goal must put the ball either under or over a crossbar between the goalposts.
* players in some codes receiving a free kick after they take a mark/make a fair catch.

Peoples from around the world have played games which involved kicking and/or carrying a ball, since ancient times. However, most of the modern codes of football have their origins in England.