<P> Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball with a foot to score a goal . Unqualified, the word football is understood to refer to whichever form of football is the most popular in the regional context in which the word appears . Sports commonly called football in certain places include Association football (known as soccer in some countries); gridiron football (specifically American football or Canadian football); Australian rules football; rugby football (either rugby league or rugby union); and Gaelic football . These different variations of football are known as football codes . </P> <P> The earliest form of football can be traced back to China (Han dynasty), originating from cuju, an ancient Chinese football game, as recognized by FIFA . Contemporary codes of football can be traced back to the codification of these games at English public schools during the nineteenth century . The expansion of the British Empire allowed these rules of football to spread to areas of British influence outside the directly controlled Empire . By the end of the nineteenth century, distinct regional codes were already developing: Gaelic football, for example, deliberately incorporated the rules of local traditional football games in order to maintain their heritage . In 1888, The Football League was founded in England, becoming the first of many professional football competitions . During the twentieth century, several of the various kinds of football grew to become some of the most popular team sports in the world . </P> <P> The various codes of football share certain common elements and can be grouped into two main classes of football: carrying codes like American football, Canadian football, rugby union and rugby league, where the ball is moved about the field while being held in the hands or thrown, and kicking codes such as Association football and Gaelic football, where the ball is moved primarily with the feet, and where handling is strictly limited . </P>

Where was football first played in the world