This article is about the family of sports. Football football cake design a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. There are a number of references to traditional, ancient, or prehistoric ball games played in many different parts of the world.

The various codes of football share certain common elements and can be grouped into two main classes of football: carrying codes like American football, Canadian football, Australian football, rugby union and rugby league, where the ball is moved about the field while being held in the hands or thrown, and kicking codes such as Association football and Gaelic football, where the ball is moved primarily with the feet, and where handling is strictly limited. A clearly defined area in which to play the game. Scoring goals 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. Goals or points resulting from players putting the ball between two goalposts. The goal or line being defended by the opposing team. Players using only their body to move the ball, ie no additional equipment such as bats or sticks.

In all codes, common skills include passing, tackling, evasion of tackles, catching and kicking. There are conflicting explanations of the origin of the word “football”. The Ancient Greeks and Romans are known to have played many ball games, some of which involved the use of the feet. There are a number of references to traditional, ancient, or prehistoric ball games, played by indigenous peoples in many different parts of the world.

These games and others may well go far back into antiquity. However, the main sources of modern football codes appear to lie in western Europe, especially England. Mahmud al-Kashgari in his Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk, described a game called “tepuk” among Turks in Central Asia. In the game, people try to attack each other’s castle by kicking a ball made of sheep leather. The Middle Ages saw a huge rise in popularity of annual Shrovetide football matches throughout Europe, particularly in England. After lunch all the youth of the city go out into the fields to take part in a ball game. Most of the very early references to the game speak simply of “ball play” or “playing at ball”.