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Football

Explorer · ages 7 and underAdapted from Wikipedia
Olga Matīsa playing for the Latvia women's national football team in a match against Sweden.

What Is Football?

Football is a family of team sports. Players try to get the ball over a goal line, into a goal, or between goalposts. They can use only their body. They can carry, throw, or kicking the ball.

When people say "football," they often mean the kind played most where they live. Association football is called soccer in Australia, Canada, South Africa, and the United States.

Many Kinds of Football

There are many kinds of football. Some of them are Australian rules football, Gaelic football, and gridiron football. Gridiron football includes American football, arena football, and Canadian football. Others are rugby league football and rugby union football.

Most of these games have some simple things in common. Players often pass, catch, and kick the ball. A team usually has between 11 and 18 players. Teams score by moving the ball to the other team's end of the field.

Where Football Began

People have played ball games for a very long time. Long ago, the Chinese game cuju was played with the feet. Today's football games grew from rules set for these games at English public schools in the 1800s. Those games grew out of medieval football.

In 1888, the Football League was founded in England. It was the first of many professional football groups. Today, several kinds of football are some of the most popular team sports in the world.

Quiz time!

3 questions about Football

Question 1 of 3

What can players use to move the ball?

Pictures

Players gather during a stoppage in a 2007 AFL match between the Hawthorn Hawks and the Essendon Bombers.
Kerry's Aidan O'Mahony and Derry's Eoin Bradley competing during the 2009 National Football League final, a Gaelic football match.
Cornerback Brent Grimes of the Hamburg Sea Devils catches a ball during a game against the Amsterdam Admirals.
Players from Scotland and Italy competing in a 2013 Rugby League World Cup match at Derwent Park in Workington.
Players from Canada and England competing in the 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup final.
Lionel Messi, the professional soccer player, photographed in 2011 when he won the Player of the Year award.
Quinn Nordin, a college football kicker, lines up to kick the ball during a game.
Dana Hooker of Fremantle kicking the ball during a 2019 AFL Women's practice match in Darwin, Australia.
Young rugby players from Stade Toulousain and Lyon OU compete in a French under-21 championship match in 2013, with one player preparing to kick the ball.
A detail from an old painting showing a group of children during a long spring season.
A detail from a modern copy of an ancient mural at Tepantitla, in the ancient city of Teotihuacan, showing a ballplayer painted by people long ago.
A historical painting showing Emperor Taizu of the Song dynasty, Emperor Taizong, and their ministers playing cuju, an ancient Chinese ball game similar to football.
A Roman tombstone in Sinj, Croatia, carved for a young boy named Gaius Laberius, who holds a harpastum ball. The ball's pattern of hexagons and pentagons looks much like a modern soccer ball.
A carved marble relief from ancient Greece, made around 2,400 years ago, showing a young athlete balancing a ball. It was once part of a grave monument found in Piraeus and is now in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.
Line-out. From left to right: Stade toulousain: 3 Census Jonhston, 7 Sylvain Nicolas, 6 Yannick Nyanga, 8 Shaun Sowerby, 4 Grégory Lamboley, 5 Patricio Albacete Lyon olympique universitaire: 6 Nicolas Bontinck, 4 Jean Sousa, 5 Coenraad Basson, 9 Enrico Januarie, 8 Sisa Koyamaibole
Although the Rugby School (pictured) became famous due to a version that rugby football was invented there in 1823, most sports historians refuse this version stating it is apocryphal.
Football (1839) by British painter Thomas Webster
Football match in the 1846 Shrove Tuesday in Kingston upon Thames, England
Richard Lindon (seen in 1880) is believed to have invented the first footballs with rubber bladders.
Heading from The Sportsman (London) front page of 25 November 1910, illustrating the continued use of the word "football" to encompass both association football and rugby
Small football stadium in Croatia
Size comparison of modern football codes playing fields
Soccer
American and Arena football
Multipurpose soccer and American football
Penalty Kick of Daigo Furukawa(FC Osaka)
Manta, domingo 19 de abril del 2015 (ANDES).-En Manta se desarrolla el Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol de Playa. En la gráfica el partido entre Colombia y Paraguay Foto:César Muñoz/ANDES
Clásico del futsal posadeño - Telecentro vs Plastimi
Clemson kicks an extra point after scoring on a pick six at the 2019 College Football Playoff National Championship.
Army-Navy Game festivities
The Frisco Fighters play a home game in Frisco, Texas against the Tucson Sugar Skulls during the 2022 Indoor Football League season.
The BC Lions played the Toronto Argonauts, in Toronto, on October 8, 2022.
Telephoto test from a Celtic Crusaders game. It was an evening game so not great light. Also a good test of the highest iso settings.
Paul Puopolo "specky" mark during the AFL round two match between Hawthorn and Adelaide on 1 April 2017 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Melbourne, Victoria.
An Irish player about to kick the ball downfield. From the second test of the 2005 International Rules Series between Australia and Ireland, played at Docklands Stadium, Melbourne, Australia.
Gaelic football in Croke Park

Keep exploring

Team sport
Association football
Gridiron football
Australian rules football
Gaelic football
American football

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Football, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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