The history of football (or soccer if you are in the USA) is a complex one, but what is it you really need to know about one of the world’s most-loved and supported sports? We’ve detailed some of the key facts about football’s history so you can understand how the sport has developed since day dot.
Where it all started
The origins of football can be split into two categories: contemporary history and classical history.
The contemporary history: WHERE & WHEN WAS FOOTBALL INVENTED?
Football’s modern origins began in England more than 160 years ago, in 1863.
Rugby football and association football, once the same thing, went their separate ways and the Football Association, the first official governing body for the sport, was established. It happened at a meeting of a dozen London clubs at the Freemasons’ Tavern on 26 October 1863, where the first unified Laws of the Game were agreed.
Who invented football?
No single person invented football. The game grew out of centuries of folk versions before it was codified. If anyone deserves the credit, it is Ebenezer Cobb Morley, a London solicitor often called the father of modern football. Morley formed Barnes FC in 1862, wrote to the press suggesting football needed a single set of rules, and drafted the original 13 Laws of the Game adopted by the newly formed Football Association in 1863.
Those first laws settled the arguments that had split clubs for years. Carrying the ball was outlawed, and so was hacking, the practice of kicking opponents in the shins. Clubs that wanted to keep both walked away and later formed the Rugby Football Union, which is why 1863 marks the point where football and rugby became separate sports.
Going back in time
History books show that people have had a brilliant time kicking a ball around for thousands of years, but not all those games would be recognisable as what we consider football today. But the different periods of football, or sports involving kicking a ball in more accurate terms, were all crucial to the development of the game. Without the variation experienced over the years, we may have never had football by modern standards.
The furthest back we can track football’s history is to China, as early as the third century BC, where there are mentions of a game resembling football in military manuals. The Han Dynasty played a game called Tsu’ Chu, better known today as cuju, which FIFA recognises as the earliest form of a kicking game for which there is historical evidence. It involved kicking a ball through a 30-40cm opening and into what we’d now see as a goal made of canes with a net attached to it. The ball used during these games was made from leather and filled with hair and feathers.
The Greeks played episkyros, a ball game contested on a rectangular field marked by boundaries and a centre line, where the aim was for one team to get the ball over their competitor’s boundary line. The Romans developed it into harpastum, played with a smaller, harder ball, and it was Roman culture that helped carry ball games to the British Isles.
Based on what we know about the history of ball games where use of feet dominates, we can see clearly the effect different cultures and variations have had on the game we play today.
Britain and football
Records show that, in 1314, the Lord Mayor of London banned football in the city due to it causing ‘chaos’. If you were caught playing the game in London, you could be imprisoned. This was elaborated on during the Hundred Years’ War between England and France, when Kings Edward II, Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V made the game illegal throughout the UK due to it ‘taking away focus from practising military disciplines’, which were deemed more useful.
Despite opposition for the game, football thrived in Britain from the eighth to the 19th centuries, however, a standardised version of the game was still a rarity as regional versions often gained favour. These different versions of the game were neatened up to eventually become association football, rugby football and Gaelic football, all of which contributed to the contemporary equivalent of the game we play today.
Two milestones paved the way for standardisation. In 1848, students at Cambridge University drew up the Cambridge Rules, the first serious attempt to merge the different public school versions into one code. Then, in 1857, Sheffield FC was formed, now recognised as the world’s oldest football club. Its Sheffield Rules shaped the game across the north of England and several of its innovations later fed into the FA’s laws.
When thinking of the Sunday leagues we now play, the best iteration is village vs village games where villages gathered and their teams played against each other, usually on unmarked fields.
The standardisation of the ball
Even though the official rules of modern football were dictated in 1863 when the Football Association was established, the specifications of the ball were not standardised until 1872. Up until then, both parties playing would agree what ball was to be used amongst themselves.
Why is a match 90 mins long?
The standard length of game in football is 90 minutes. This duration was established for the first time in 1866 when London and Sheffield played against one another. For one reason or another, from here onward, 90 minutes was set as the standard duration for football games. Although, modern underage games do not use the 90-minute format.
Football, the global phenomenon
It wasn’t until the start of the 19th century that playing football in schools became the norm, starting in public schools. While rules did not differ greatly to the standard, many schools would come up with their own variation of the game depending on the grounds they had available. For example, if a school only had a concrete playground, which was true of many schools, they had to work with what they had and would adapt the boundaries accordingly.
Eight years after it was founded, The Football Association had established 50 member clubs. That’s when, in 1872, the FA Cup was born, with Wanderers winning the first final. Professional football was legalised in 1885, and in 1888 the Football League was formed, giving the game its first league championship. Preceding all of this, in November 1872, was the first ‘international’ football match, a 0-0 draw between Scotland and England in Glasgow, which attracted enormous crowds, much like today’s games. At this time, Europe still hadn’t embraced the contemporary variant of football, which helped to define football as a ‘very British sport.’
The spread of football outside the UK was slow at first, but it soon reached every corner of the world. The Netherlands and Denmark formed their own football associations in 1889, followed by New Zealand in 1891, Argentina in 1893, and Chile, Switzerland and Belgium in 1895. Italy was next, forming its association in 1898. Behind it was Germany and Uruguay in 1900. The next decade would see Hungary and Finland form associations, too.
The Founding of FIFA
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) was established in Paris in 1904. Its founding members included Belgium, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
The laws themselves have an older guardian. The International Football Association Board (IFAB), formed by the four British associations in 1886, still oversees the Laws of the Game today. Stanley Rous, who went on to become FIFA President, redrafted the laws in 1938, and they were rewritten again in 1997.
FIFA staged the first World Cup in Uruguay in 1930, with the hosts beating Argentina 4-2 in the final. By the 1950s, after the Second World War, there were more than 73 FIFA members.
The history of women’s football
Women have played football for as long as the modern game has existed. The first recorded women’s match took place in England in March 1895, and by the First World War teams like Dick, Kerr Ladies of Preston were drawing enormous crowds to charity matches, including 53,000 at Goodison Park in 1920.
That popularity was cut short in 1921 when the FA banned women from playing on its members’ grounds, a ban that stood for 50 years and, in the FA’s own words, effectively destroyed the game in England. The ban was lifted in 1971, and the women’s game has grown rapidly since, with the Women’s Super League launching in 2011 and record crowds following the Lionesses’ success.
How many football clubs are there in the world?
As of 2026, FIFA has 211 member associations throughout the world, more than the United Nations has member states. It’s almost impossible to tell exactly how many football clubs there are, but FIFA’s Big Count survey put the global figure at around 300,000 clubs and 265 million players. In England alone, the professional and semi-professional pyramid accounts for hundreds of clubs, with tens of thousands more playing at grassroots level, and that number’s ever increasing.
FAQs
When was football invented?
Modern football was invented in 1863, when the Football Association was formed in London and the first unified Laws of the Game were written. Earlier kicking games existed for thousands of years, but 1863 is when football as we know it began.
Which country invented football?
England invented modern football. The Football Association, formed in London in 1863, was the first governing body and wrote the rules that separated football from rugby.
What is the oldest football club in the world?
Sheffield FC, formed in 1857, is recognised as the world’s oldest football club. Notts County, formed in 1862, is the oldest professional club still playing today.
When was the first World Cup?
The first FIFA World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930. The hosts won it, beating Argentina 4-2 in the final in Montevideo.
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Football History: Everything you need to know
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The history of football (or soccer if you are in the USA) is a complex one, but what is it you really need to know about one of the world’s most-loved and supported sports? We’ve detailed some of the key facts about football’s history so you can understand how the sport has developed since day dot.
Where it all started
The origins of football can be split into two categories: contemporary history and classical history.
The contemporary history: WHERE & WHEN WAS FOOTBALL INVENTED?
Football’s modern origins began in England more than 160 years ago, in 1863.
Rugby football and association football, once the same thing, went their separate ways and the Football Association, the first official governing body for the sport, was established. It happened at a meeting of a dozen London clubs at the Freemasons’ Tavern on 26 October 1863, where the first unified Laws of the Game were agreed.
Who invented football?
No single person invented football. The game grew out of centuries of folk versions before it was codified. If anyone deserves the credit, it is Ebenezer Cobb Morley, a London solicitor often called the father of modern football. Morley formed Barnes FC in 1862, wrote to the press suggesting football needed a single set of rules, and drafted the original 13 Laws of the Game adopted by the newly formed Football Association in 1863.
Those first laws settled the arguments that had split clubs for years. Carrying the ball was outlawed, and so was hacking, the practice of kicking opponents in the shins. Clubs that wanted to keep both walked away and later formed the Rugby Football Union, which is why 1863 marks the point where football and rugby became separate sports.
Going back in time
History books show that people have had a brilliant time kicking a ball around for thousands of years, but not all those games would be recognisable as what we consider football today. But the different periods of football, or sports involving kicking a ball in more accurate terms, were all crucial to the development of the game. Without the variation experienced over the years, we may have never had football by modern standards.
The furthest back we can track football’s history is to China, as early as the third century BC, where there are mentions of a game resembling football in military manuals. The Han Dynasty played a game called Tsu’ Chu, better known today as cuju, which FIFA recognises as the earliest form of a kicking game for which there is historical evidence. It involved kicking a ball through a 30-40cm opening and into what we’d now see as a goal made of canes with a net attached to it. The ball used during these games was made from leather and filled with hair and feathers.
The Greeks played episkyros, a ball game contested on a rectangular field marked by boundaries and a centre line, where the aim was for one team to get the ball over their competitor’s boundary line. The Romans developed it into harpastum, played with a smaller, harder ball, and it was Roman culture that helped carry ball games to the British Isles.
Based on what we know about the history of ball games where use of feet dominates, we can see clearly the effect different cultures and variations have had on the game we play today.
Britain and football
Records show that, in 1314, the Lord Mayor of London banned football in the city due to it causing ‘chaos’. If you were caught playing the game in London, you could be imprisoned. This was elaborated on during the Hundred Years’ War between England and France, when Kings Edward II, Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V made the game illegal throughout the UK due to it ‘taking away focus from practising military disciplines’, which were deemed more useful.
Despite opposition for the game, football thrived in Britain from the eighth to the 19th centuries, however, a standardised version of the game was still a rarity as regional versions often gained favour. These different versions of the game were neatened up to eventually become association football, rugby football and Gaelic football, all of which contributed to the contemporary equivalent of the game we play today.
Two milestones paved the way for standardisation. In 1848, students at Cambridge University drew up the Cambridge Rules, the first serious attempt to merge the different public school versions into one code. Then, in 1857, Sheffield FC was formed, now recognised as the world’s oldest football club. Its Sheffield Rules shaped the game across the north of England and several of its innovations later fed into the FA’s laws.
When thinking of the Sunday leagues we now play, the best iteration is village vs village games where villages gathered and their teams played against each other, usually on unmarked fields.
The standardisation of the ball
Even though the official rules of modern football were dictated in 1863 when the Football Association was established, the specifications of the ball were not standardised until 1872. Up until then, both parties playing would agree what ball was to be used amongst themselves.
Why is a match 90 mins long?
The standard length of game in football is 90 minutes. This duration was established for the first time in 1866 when London and Sheffield played against one another. For one reason or another, from here onward, 90 minutes was set as the standard duration for football games. Although, modern underage games do not use the 90-minute format.
Football, the global phenomenon
It wasn’t until the start of the 19th century that playing football in schools became the norm, starting in public schools. While rules did not differ greatly to the standard, many schools would come up with their own variation of the game depending on the grounds they had available. For example, if a school only had a concrete playground, which was true of many schools, they had to work with what they had and would adapt the boundaries accordingly.
Eight years after it was founded, The Football Association had established 50 member clubs. That’s when, in 1872, the FA Cup was born, with Wanderers winning the first final. Professional football was legalised in 1885, and in 1888 the Football League was formed, giving the game its first league championship. Preceding all of this, in November 1872, was the first ‘international’ football match, a 0-0 draw between Scotland and England in Glasgow, which attracted enormous crowds, much like today’s games. At this time, Europe still hadn’t embraced the contemporary variant of football, which helped to define football as a ‘very British sport.’
The spread of football outside the UK was slow at first, but it soon reached every corner of the world. The Netherlands and Denmark formed their own football associations in 1889, followed by New Zealand in 1891, Argentina in 1893, and Chile, Switzerland and Belgium in 1895. Italy was next, forming its association in 1898. Behind it was Germany and Uruguay in 1900. The next decade would see Hungary and Finland form associations, too.
The Founding of FIFA
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) was established in Paris in 1904. Its founding members included Belgium, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
The laws themselves have an older guardian. The International Football Association Board (IFAB), formed by the four British associations in 1886, still oversees the Laws of the Game today. Stanley Rous, who went on to become FIFA President, redrafted the laws in 1938, and they were rewritten again in 1997.
FIFA staged the first World Cup in Uruguay in 1930, with the hosts beating Argentina 4-2 in the final. By the 1950s, after the Second World War, there were more than 73 FIFA members.
The history of women’s football
Women have played football for as long as the modern game has existed. The first recorded women’s match took place in England in March 1895, and by the First World War teams like Dick, Kerr Ladies of Preston were drawing enormous crowds to charity matches, including 53,000 at Goodison Park in 1920.
That popularity was cut short in 1921 when the FA banned women from playing on its members’ grounds, a ban that stood for 50 years and, in the FA’s own words, effectively destroyed the game in England. The ban was lifted in 1971, and the women’s game has grown rapidly since, with the Women’s Super League launching in 2011 and record crowds following the Lionesses’ success.
How many football clubs are there in the world?
As of 2026, FIFA has 211 member associations throughout the world, more than the United Nations has member states. It’s almost impossible to tell exactly how many football clubs there are, but FIFA’s Big Count survey put the global figure at around 300,000 clubs and 265 million players. In England alone, the professional and semi-professional pyramid accounts for hundreds of clubs, with tens of thousands more playing at grassroots level, and that number’s ever increasing.
FAQs
Modern football was invented in 1863, when the Football Association was formed in London and the first unified Laws of the Game were written. Earlier kicking games existed for thousands of years, but 1863 is when football as we know it began.
England invented modern football. The Football Association, formed in London in 1863, was the first governing body and wrote the rules that separated football from rugby.
Sheffield FC, formed in 1857, is recognised as the world’s oldest football club. Notts County, formed in 1862, is the oldest professional club still playing today.
The first FIFA World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930. The hosts won it, beating Argentina 4-2 in the final in Montevideo.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Optio, neque qui velit. Magni dolorum quidem ipsam eligendi, totam, facilis laudantium cum accusamus ullam voluptatibus commodi numquam, error, est. Ea, consequatur.
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