The document discusses the definition, history, rules, and governance of various football codes. It begins by defining football and noting the different regional terms used, such as soccer, American football, and Australian rules football. It then covers the origins of football in England in the 19th century and how British influence helped spread different codes around the world. The common elements across codes are discussed, such as using feet to move the ball and scoring goals. Modern football is governed by FIFA, which oversees international competitions like the World Cup.

1. Definition and codes of football
Football refers to the variety of sports or game that entails kicking the ball with the foot to
score a goal (Wikis,2015). Here, the term is understood to imply to whichever form of the game
in the regional context the term is used such that we have association football or soccer in the UK
and most of non-English speaking world; gridiron football to refer to American or Canadian
football in the US and Canada or Australian rule football of rugby league as used in different areas
of Australia including Gaelic football in Ireland and rugby football in New Zealand. Football's
history can be traced as laborers game, and its current codes can be linked to public schools in
England in 19th century. At the time British Empire had a popular influence around the world and
for this reason they used their power to spread the game around the empires they controlled British
Empire influence was reigning at that time, and that enabled the spread of the game of football
and its rules to the areas the empire ruled. Approaching end of 19th-century different codes of
football game were already in place, for instance; Gaelic football included the rules of local
tradition footballing games to uphold its heritage of the game. The first of many football
professional competitions was founded in England and was known as The Football League
(Eisenberg et al., 2006)
Common elements
Variety of existing football codes share common elements where at the start of the game,
players occupy positions in a limited area of the pitch and use throwing and running/chasing as the
main ways of making the ball move and the game to move as well while kicking at certain
positions. The major skill is tackling with the body and the game comprise of short passageways
of play of between 5-90 seconds. Kicking is the most commonly used way of moving the ball

2. around the pitch as used by most of the football leagues that include association of football;
Australian rules football and Gaelic football and body tackling are less common to the game.
The common rules of the game include:
 Played by two teams of between 11-18 players although there are some variations where
there are fewer or more players
 There exists a clearly defined pitch or area of play
 The objective of the game is scoring goals by means of moving the ball to the opponent's
end of the pitch or the goal
 Goals are as a result of players putting the ball past opponent's goalpost
 The ball is moved around by kicking and depending on the code controlled using other
parts of the body except the hands
 Where the game is moved by kicking only the goalkeeper is allowed to use his hands to
control the ball
 The most common skills in most of the football codes are passing, tackling evading tackles,
catching and kicking
History of football
History of football; the world's favorite game can be traced back to over 100 years ago and
started in England in 1863 at the period when the Rugby football and association football split on
their different progressions and the English Football Association was formed to be the sports first
governing body. Both rugby football and association football curtailed from a common root and
have lengthy and complicatedly diverged inherited tree. Looking back at history, discloses at least
half a dozen varying games to different extents where historical background of football can be

3. traced but the justification of this can be disputed. However, kicking of the ball has been enjoyed
by people for over 1000 years and makes no sense to consider this as just an abnormality of the
most regular form of playing the ball with the hands.
However, the fact that using both the feet to control the ball t was not an easy task, as it
needed a measure of skill made it necessary to use the legs and feet in tough tussles for the ball
with limited laws for protection. Earliest form of the game with scientific evidence was a military
manual dating second and 3rd centuries BC in China. Japanese Kemari was another form of the
game originating from the Far East 600 years ago. We also have the Greek Episkyros and the
Roman Harpastum that was played with a small ball by two teams on a small rectangular field
marked by boundary lines and centerline (FIFA Classic Football Online, 2015)
The modern football; Governance
Current game of football is governed by the Federation Internationale de Football
Association (FIFA) governed by Swiss law and founded in 1904, and based in Zurich Switzerland.
The association has 209 member associations, and its objective is protected in its statutes, is
constant improvement in the game of football. The association employs 310 employees from 0ver
35 nations and is composed of a Congress (legislative body), Executive Committee (Executive
body) led by its current President Joseph S Blatter, General Secretariat (administrative body) and
committees (assisting the executives) (FIFA Online, 2015).

4. Rules
The modern football game is played by two teams of eleven players each for two halves of
forty-five minutes each bringing the maximum duration to ninety minutes. The game is controlled
by a center referee assisted by three other officials; two linesmen on both sides of the football pitch
and the fourth official who acts as the time manager and control player substitutions. Every team
is allowed to have a substitute bench of players of minimum of five and a maximum of seven, but
only three of the eleven starting players can be substituted over the 90 minutes playing period. The
referee controls the game by ensuring the players adhere to the play regulations and is mandated
to penalize a player who defaults (FIFA Laws of the Game, 2013/2014).
Tournaments
FIFA controls all the football associations of the member countries without political
influences from the member states. It organizes and manages football competitions all over the
world that the body recognizes through locally FIFA-backed football associations. The games
major tournament is the men's world cup held every four years in a nominated host country of
which the most recent was held in Brazil and won by Germany.
Conclusion
This assessment has covered the football as a topic while looking at its definition, its
history, the major rules governing the game, the governing authority and the games major
tournaments. The paper contains excerpts from each covered and readers are encouraged to read
more from the references to get more information.

5. References
Eisenberg, Christiane and Pierre Lanfranchi, eds. (2006): Football History: International
Perspectives; Special Issue, Historical Social Research31.
FIFA (2013/2014) Football Development and Refereeing. Retrieved from
http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/footballdevelopment/refereeing/81/42/36/log2013en_neutral.
pdf
FIFA (2015) Classic Football. Retrieved from http://www.fifa.com/classicfootball/history/the-
laws/from-1863-to-present.html
FIFA (2015) Retrieved from http://www.fifa.com/
Wikipedia (2015) Football. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football