Various games resembling modern football have been played at least since Roman times and probably long before in various countries around the world. However, it wasn’t until the 19th century in England that serious attempts were made to standardise the rules.

Ball games, sometimes involving hundreds of players with goals kilometres apart had been played in England since the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Edward 111, Richard 11, Henry 1V, Henry V111 and Elizabeth 1 all tried to ban such games.

Australian Rules Football originated in Melbourne in the late 1850s from an idea of Thomas Wentworth Willis for a winter sport for cricketers. The first game was played on August 7, 1858 between schoolboy teams from Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar. This led to clubs being formed in Melbourne in the early 1860s. The game was introduced into New South Wales in 1866 and slowly spread to the other Australian states, reaching the Western Australian goldfields in 1883.

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Rugby League was an offshoot from Rugby Union by players who felt that they should be paid in the same way as players in the British Football (soccer) Association. The Rugby League was formed in 1895.

Initially, the rules of Rugby League were the same as those for Rugby Union but, almost immediately, the administrators of the game began making changes to make the game a better spectator sport.

Rugby League is played on a large scale only in England, France, New Zealand and Australia and is more popular than Rugby Union only in Australia.

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Various games resembling modern football have been played at least since Roman times and probably long before in various countries around the world. However, it wasn’t until the 19th century in England that serious attempts were made to standardise the rules.

Ball games, sometimes involving hundreds of players with goals kilometres apart had been played in England since the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Edward 111, Richard 11, Henry 1V, Henry V111 and Elizabeth 1 all tried to ban such games.

In the early 1860s, a game resembling modern soccer, with eleven players on each side not being allowed to touch the ball with their hands, was being played at various centres including Oxford, Cambridge, Sheffield, Chester and Nottingham while rugby was played throughout much of the public school system. In October 1863, an attempt was made to create a single code from the two games by the establishment of a Football Association. The result was the irrevocable splitting of the two codes with the "soccer" group accepting the rules of "Association Football" while the rugby group formed their own "Union". 

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Various games resembling modern football have been played at least since Roman times and probably long before in various countries around the world. However, it wasn’t until the 19th century in England that serious attempts were made to standardise the rules.

Ball games, sometimes involving hundreds of players with goals kilometres apart had been played in England since the thirteenth or fourteenth century. Edward 111, Richard 11, Henry 1V, Henry V111 and Elizabeth 1 all tried to ban such games.

In the early 1860s, a game resembling modern soccer, with eleven players on each side not being allowed to touch the ball with their hands, was being played at various centres including Oxford, Cambridge, Sheffield, Chester and Nottingham while rugby was played throughout much of the public school system. In October 1863, an attempt was made to create a single code from the two games by the establishment of a Football Association. The result was the irrevocable splitting of the two codes with the "soccer" group accepting the rules of "Association Football" while the rugby group formed their own "Union". (The word "soccer" is a contraction of "association" and "rugger" and was first used at Oxford.)

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Click here for the main Football article.

Continue for internatioal football memorabilia.

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