Football facts for kids

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi

Football is a sport. The most popular type of football is Association football, which is also named "soccer". Although Football is old it is the most popular sport in the world. Football can also mean American football (gridiron), rugby union, rugby league, Australian Rules Football, Gaelic football or Canadian football.

Soccer

The name football comes from the two words "foot" and "ball". It is named football because the players of the game walk and run (on foot) while playing, as opposed to polo and other games played on horseback. The ball is often kicked with the foot, but depending on the game, it can also be hit using other parts of the body (in association football) and handling the ball is a part of many other football variants.

The game started in Medieval England, but not the modern versions. Some elements of football have been seen in a wide variety of countries dating back to the second and third century in China. The modern games of both rugby football and association football are in the 19th century England.

In football, the ball is almost always shaped like a sphere or an ellipsoide.

Types of football include:

Association football (soccer)
Rugby football
- Rugby league football
- Rugby union football
American football (gridiron)
- College football
- Touch Rugby - Called "touch football" in Australia.
Gaelic football
Australian Rules Football
Canadian football

Images for kids

Several codes of football. Images, from top down, left to right: association football, Australian rules football, international rules football, a rugby union scrum, rugby league, and American football.
A painting depicting Emperor Taizu of Song playing cuju (i.e. Chinese football) with his prime minister Zhao Pu (趙普) and other ministers, by the Yuan dynasty artist Qian Xuan (1235–1305)
An illustration of so-called "mob football"
France circa 1750
An illustration of the Calcio Fiorentino field and starting positions, from a 1688 book by Pietro di Lorenzo Bini.
Tom Wills, widely regarded as the father of Australian football
Wood engraving of an Australian rules football match at the Richmond Paddock, Melbourne, 1866
A rugby scrum in 1871
The "Tigers" of Hamilton, Ontario, circa 1906. Founded 1869 as the Hamilton Foot Ball Club, they eventually merged with the Hamilton Flying Wildcats to form the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, a team still active in the Canadian Football League.
Rutgers College Football Team, 1882
The All-Ireland Football Final in Croke Park, 2004.
A player takes a free kick, while the opposition form a "wall", in Association football
Players assemble at the line of scrimmage in an American football game.
An indoor soccer game at an open-air venue in Mexico. The referee has just awarded the red team a free kick.
Street football, Venice (1960)
Rugby sevens; Fiji v Wales at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne
Harrow football players after a game at Harrow School (circa 2005).
A Song Dynasty painting by Su Hanchen (c. 1130-1160), depicting Chinese children playing cuju.
Paint of a Mesoamerican ballgame player of the Tepantitla murals in Teotihuacan.
A revived version of kemari being played at the Tanzan Shrine, Japan.
A group of aborigines playing football in Guiana.