History of Football
Football-type games - where stones or similar objects were kicked around - predate recorded history so the earliest forms of the game are not known.
Several forms of ball games involving the use of the feet are however documented throughout ancient history, including a Chinese game called Cuju and the Japanese sport of Kemari.
Although these forms of the game may have had an influence on the modern-day game of football – it’s thought the game’s origins, as we know it today, have their roots in Europe and in particular England between the 8th and 19th Centuries.
Originally played as a mob game, it was in the English private schools that the rules were developed and the sport was turned into a structured team game.
The English FA, the first football association, was founded in 1863 and only eight years later had 50 member clubs. The first football competition – the FA Cup - was started less than 10 years later in 1871.
After the English Football Association, the next to be created were the Scottish FA in 1873, the FA of Wales in 1875 and the Irish FA in 1880 following the first international match, contested between Scotland and England in 1872.
Although the spread of football outside of Britain was fairly slow – it eventually reached all parts of the world and Football Associations were set up in Europe, South America and Oceania throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s.
By 1912, 21 national associations had been set up and were affiliated to the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), which over the years rose to more than 200 today.
There are several versions of football played by athletes with a disability, including amputee, intellectual disability and deaf football – however the only forms of the Game currently included in the Paralympic program are five-a-side football for the visually impaired and seven-a-side for athletes with cerebral palsy.
The seven-a-side game was the first to be included in the Paralympic program, having been introduced at the 1984 Games in New York and Stoke Mandeville. Five-a-side football wasn’t included until much later, making its debut at the Games in Athens in 2004.
