The word “football” refers to several sports such as American football, Australian football, Canadian football, Gaelic football, rugby, soccer, and probably most sports that involve kicking a ball with the foot and aiming the ball at the goal in order to score. Even if they have similarities and are all known as football, each of them still has its own rules. How did football actually start?
The name “football” seems to have derived from the act of kicking a ball with the foot. However, there is another explanation for how the word was coined. In medieval Europe, there were numerous games played by foot that were called football. Peasants were the ones who commonly played such games. Based on history, football evolved from the ancient games of different cultures and some of them are discussed below.
The Ancient Greeks and Romans played various ball games that involve the feet and some of them are similar to what we now know as rugby. These games started as early as 388 BC.
There is also a document that serves as evidence that the Chinese also played a ball game that very much resembles football. This document is the Chinese military manual called Zhan Guo Cek, which was gathered in the 3rd century to the 1st century. It states that there is an activity known as cuju, which means “kick ball,” that requires kicking a leather ball and aiming it at a hole made of silk cloth. This cloth was attached to bamboo sticks that were hung approximately 9m above the ground. Cuju then became standardized and had set rules during the Han Dynasty. The game spread and had variations in different countries like Japan and Korea. During the Tang Dynasty, an air-filled ball replaced the one used in Cuju. The game even became a professional sport eventually.
Kemari, which arose in the Asuka period around 600 AD, is the Japanese adaptation of Cuju. In this game, a number of persons formed a circle and each person passed the ball to the other by kicking it.
Many ancient games resemble the different football sports that modern people are familiar with. These games may even have existed way back in history but were not documented. However, it is generally an accepted fact that the real football and its development started in Western Europe, particularly in England.