Category: Gridiron Football

A-Z of Football

A is for American Football, Australian Football, Arena Football, Arena Soccer and American 7s

B is for Beach Soccer, Beach Football, British Football (Medieval)

C is for Canadian Football, Calcio Storico (Fiorentina, Italy), Cuju (China), Chugkuk (Korea), Chandimu (Tanzania)

D is for Derby Shrovetide Football (British Medieval Football)

E is for E-Football, Eton Wall Game, Episkyros (Ancient Greece)

F is for Futsal, Football, Footbag, Football Fives, Flag Football, Fan-Controlled Football, Foosball, Faininda (Ancient Egypt)

G is for Gaelic Football

H is for Haxey Hood (British Medieval Football), Harpastum (Ancient Rome)

I is for Indoor Football, Indoor Soccer

J is for Jorkyball (2v2 Indoor Court Football)

K is for Kemari (Japan)

L is for Lelo Burti (Georgia), Legends Football

M is for Marn Grook (Australian Aboriginal), Mini-Football (6-a-side Soccer)

N is for National Football League

O is for Orkney Ba’ Game (Ancient Scottish Football)

P is for Powerchair Football

Q is for Queen of Scots (Earliest evidence of Inflated Football found behind wall in Mary Queen of Scots Castle)

R is for Rugby Union, Rugby League, Robot Football (3v3 Rocket Remote-controlled Powered Cars)

S is for Soccer, Street Soccer, Street Football, Subbuteo

T is for Tag Rugby, Touch Football (Australian Rules)

U is for Uppies & Downies, United States Football League

V is for Volata, Vatican Football (Standard Soccer with a Blue Card for 5 minutes in the Sin-Bin for Persistent Fouling).

W is for World Football League, Women’s Football, Wheelchair Football (American, Australian and Gaelic), Wheelchair Rugby, Woolly World Cup (2v2 Gloved Hands on a Table-top)

X is for XFL, X-League

Y is for Youth Football

Z is for Zzzzzzz: a Scoreless Draw in Soccer. What you do after all the running around and kicking.

Calcio Photo

FLORENCE – JUN 24: Fighting players during Calcio Fiorentino match on June, 24,2012. Calcio fiorentino (calcio storico or calcio in costume) is an historic florentine game, origins of modern football.

By mkistryn http://www.123rf.com

References

Wojciech Liponski (2003) World Sports Encyclopedia. St. Paul, Minnesota, Poznan, Poland.

Various websites of the Sports Involved (Please see Individual Section for each sport on www.eirball.ie)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to all the people you have played Football with me (you know who you are!)

ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT

Researched, compiled and written by Enda Mulcahy for the

Eirball | Irish North American & World Sports Archive / GAA World Archive

Last Updated: 15 May 2022

(c) Copyright Enda Mulcahy and Eirball 2022

You may quote this document in part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the authors. All Rights Reserved.The Logos and Photos used in this article remain the property of the organisations and individuals which own the copyright and are used here for educational and information purposes only.

Football Codes and Leagues by Start Year 1848-2020

Commonwealth of Nations Football Codes (1848-1909)

Football Code and year of FormationNotes
1400s Calcio Fiorentino (1)Earliest Football Code – Renaissance Florence
1848 Rugby Union (2)First English Codified Football
1858 Australian Football (3)First Codified Football outside Europe
1862 Soccer (4)Football Association
1870s Rugby League (5)Northern Rugby Clubs broke away from Rugby Union to form Professioonal League
1884 Gaelic Football (6)Gaelic Athletic Association formed in Ireland
1893 Pro Football (*)American Pro Football started in Western Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh Area)
1909 Canadian Football (7)Canadian Rugby Union (now Canadian Football League) played first Grey Cup
Commonwealth of Nations Football Codes

(*) Note: Early version of American Football. Modern versions include NCAA Football (University 1911 – Codified by Theodore Roosevelt) and National Football League (First Professional American Football League to succeed). There were also early versions of Football in Ancient Greece & Rome (e.g. Harpastum) and East Asia and Australia (e.g. Marn Grook (Australia), Kemari (Japan) and Chuo (China) which were children’s games or court games of keepie-uppies. early versions of Football in Medieval Britain with no rules or limits on the number of players e.g. Cumbrian Uppies & Downies, Alnwick Shaking the Hales, Orkney Ba’ Game among others and later English Public School Football Games with assymetrical fields and numbers per team and obscure rules e.g. Eton Fives, however, none of these was ever professional.

American Football Leagues and Soccer Continental Competitions (1911-1974)

American Football LeaguesAFL NotesSoccer ContinentsNotes
1911 University Football (8)NCAA founded1916 South American Championship (9)CONMEBOL
1920 National Football (10)NFL founded1927 International Championship (11)Europe
1930s American Football (13)AFL Rivals to NFL1930 FIFA World Cup (12)First Edition
1946 All-American Football (15)AAFC Rival to NFL1941 CCCF Championship (14)Central America
1950s American Association (17)AFA Rival to NFL NY-NJ Metro Area1951 Asian Games (16)
1960s Continental Football (19)CoFL Rival to NFL1957 African Cup of Nations (18)Became Proper Competition following Independence in 1960
1974 World Football (21)WFL Rival to NFL1973 Oceania (20)Pacific Island Nations and Australia.
American Football Codes and Soccer Continental Competitions (1911-1974)

World Indoor X Football and Pro Rugby Leagues

World American FootballArena Indoor FootballX (Spring) American FootballPro Rugby Leagues
1979 Europe (22)1986 Arena Football AFL (24)1983 United States USFL (23)1987 Premiership England (25)
1991 North Atlantic WLAF (26)1999 Indoor Foootball IFL (30)1993 CFL USA (27)1996 Super Rugby SANZAR (28)
1998 Germany NFLEL (29)2004 Lingerie Football LFL (33)2001 XFL (31)2001 Celtic League / Pro 14 (32)
2016 Mexico LFA (36)2016 American 7s A7FL (35)2014 Spring Football TSL (34)2017 Top 14 France (37)
2021 Japan X-League (40)2021 Fan-Controlled FCF (39) 2019 Alliance AAF (38)???
World Indoor X Football Leagues and Pro Rugby

References

For References on each of the Leagues as well as much more information please see the following pages:

Websites

American Football Codes

[1] NFL / Kevin Patra (2020) Washington retiring nickname, logo; new nickname TBD [Internet] Available from: https://www.nfl.com/news/washington-retires-nickname-logo-new-nickname-tbd [Accessed 14 July 2020]

Canadian Football Leagues: https://eirball.ie/canadian-football-leagues/

National Football League: https://eirball.ie/national-football-league-2/

American Football League Era 1920-1950: https://eirball.ie/american-football-leagues-era-1920-1950/

Mexican American Football Leagues: https://eirball.ie/mexican-american-football-leagues/

Japan American Football: https://eirball.ie/japanese-american-football/

United States Football Leagues Era 1960-1985: /https://eirball.ie/united-states-football-leagues-era-1960-1985/

Arena and Indoor Football Leagues: https://eirball.ie/arena-indoor-football-leagues/

European american Football: https://eirball.ie/european-american-football/

Women’s American Football (including Legends Leagues): https://eirball.ie/womens-american-football/

XFL Era Football Leagues: https://eirball.ie/xfl-football-leagues-era-1990-2020/

World American Football Leagues: https://eirball.ie/world-american-football/

World Football Leagues

LeagueLink
English Premier Leaguehttps://www.premierleague.com/
Australian Football Leaguehttps://www.afl.com.au/
Gaelic Athletic Association Footballhttps://www.gaa.ie/football/
International Rules Footballhttps://www.gaa.ie/search/?q=International%20Rules
Super Rugby (Rugby Union)https://super.rugby/superrugby/
National Rugby Leaguehttps://www.nrl.com/
Major Arena Soccer Leaguehttps://www.maslsoccer.com/
Copa Libertadores Futsalhttps://www.conmebol.com/es/libertadores-futsal-argentina2019
Calcio Fiorentinohttps://www.calciostoricofiorentino.it/
Lelo Burti (Georgia)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scQcgvuEMh4
World Football Codes

Bibliography

Guy Oliver (1992) “The Guinness Record of World Soccer” Guinness Publishing, London 1992

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Prof. Gill and Prof. Corvin.

About this document

Researched, compiled and written by Enda Mulcahy for the

Eirball | Irish, North American & World Sports Archive

Last Updated: 9 July 2021

(c) Copyright Enda Mulcahy and Eirball 2021

You may quote this document in part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the authors. All Rights Reserved.

The World’s 50 Versions of Football (With Links)

With 10 Codes of Gridiron (North American Football), 10 Codes of National Football (GAA, English Soccer, Rugby Versions, Australian Rules etc), 16 Codes of Wheelchair, Tag, Beach and Reduced Numbers Football (Street Soccer, Rugby Sevens, Beach AFL, Flag Football etc) and 14 Versions of World Football (Uncodified or Ancient Games undergoing Revival), there is Football for all.

Note: This is not a complete list: There are more Obscure or Unusual ones than in this list.

North American Gridiron Football

LeagueLink
National Football Leaguehttp://www.nfl.com/
National Collegiate Athletic Association Footballhttp://www.ncaa.com/sports/football/fbs
Canadian Football Leaguehttps://www.cfl.ca/
Liga de Futbol Americano Mexicohttp://lfa.mx/
XFLhttps://www.xfl.com/
Indoor Football Leaguehttps://goifl.com/
X-League Extreme Football League (Legends)https://extfl.com/
Fan Controlled Footballhttps://www.fcf.io/
American 7s Football Leaguehttps://www.a7fl.com/
Early Footballhttps://www.profootballresearchers.org/index.html
North American Gridiron Football Leagues

World Football Leagues

LeagueLink
English Premier Leaguehttps://www.premierleague.com/
Australian Football Leaguehttps://www.afl.com.au/
Gaelic Athletic Association Footballhttps://www.gaa.ie/football/
International Rules Footballhttps://www.gaa.ie/search/?q=International%20Rules
Super Rugby (Rugby Union)https://super.rugby/superrugby/
National Rugby Leaguehttps://www.nrl.com/
Major Arena Soccer Leaguehttps://www.maslsoccer.com/
Copa Libertadores Futsalhttps://www.conmebol.com/es/libertadores-futsal-argentina2019
Calcio Fiorentinohttps://www.calciostoricofiorentino.it/
Lelo Burti (Georgia)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scQcgvuEMh4
World Football Codes

Wheelchair, Beach & Tag Football

SportLink
Wheelchair Rugbyhttps://www.paralympic.org/wheelchair-rugby
Wheelchair Footballhttp://adaptedsports.org/
Powerchair Soccerhttps://www.fai.ie/domestic/football-for-all/association-of-irish-powerchair-football
AFL Wheelchairhttps://dsr.org.au/afl-wheelchair/#:~:text=AFL%20Wheelchair%20is%20an%20adapted,disability%20the%20opportunity%20to%20play.&text=The%20game%20is%20played%20between,either%20end%20of%20the%20field.
Beach Footballhttps://www.usbeachflagfootball.org/
Beach Soccerhttps://www.beachsoccer.com/
Beach Rugbyhttps://beachrugbyaustralia.com.au/
Beach AFLhttps://aflinternational.com/beach-footy/
Football Fives (Soccer)https://www.redbull.com/int-en/event-series/neymar-jrs-five/
Rugby Sevenshttps://www.world.rugby/sevens-series/?lang=en
GAA Football Sevenshttps://kilmacudcrokes.com/football/football-all-ireland-7s-0
AFL 9shttps://afl9s.com.au/
Flag Football (American)https://flagfootballworld.com/
Street Soccerhttps://globalstreetsoccer.com/
Tag Rugbyhttps://www.tagrugby.ie/Contact-ITRA-HQ.html
AFL Tags and Tailshttps://play.afl/auskick/activities/tags-and-tails
Wheelchair, Beach, Tag & Reduced Numbers Football

Uncodified World Football

Country / GameLink to Video or Media
China / Cujuhttps://web.archive.org/web/20060414084626/http://qlqwl.com.cn/english/news/t20040910_377495.htm
Japan / Kemarihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO3vRH2z8jo
India / Yubi LakpiNone
Aotearoa-New Zealand / https://archive.is/20130920185818/http://innz.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=533353
Australian Aboriginal / Marn Grookhttps://archive.is/20130920185818/http://innz.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=533353
Central America / Pok-ta-Pok(Ulama)https://edition.channel5belize.com/archives/174771
Normandy (France) / La Soulehttp://www.jeuxtradinormandie.fr/
Iceland / Knattleikrhttp://knattleikr.blogspot.com/
Scotland / Ba Gamehttp://www.orkneyjar.com/tradition/bagame/
Britain / Uppies & Downies and Shrovetide Footballhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lamUNwU9v3A
Canada / Broomballhttps://www.gatewayicecenter.com/page/show/1453223-what-is-broomball-
Eton Wall Gamehttps://www.thegentlemansjournal.com/house-note/sam-leith-history-eton-wall-game-sport/
Roman Harpastumhttps://www.topendsports.com/sport/extinct/harpastum.htm
Greek Episkyros
https://healthandfitnesshistory.com/ancient-sports/greek-episkyros-ball-game/

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Everyone who has ever played or enjoyed watching any version of Football

About this document

Researched, compiled and written by Enda Mulcahy for the

Eirball | Irish North American and World Sports Archive

Last Updated: 25 March 2021

(c) Copyright Enda Mulcahy and Eirball 2020

You may quote this document in part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the authors. All Rights Resereved.