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football

A contact sport played between two teams of 11 players with an inflated, pointed-oval ball. It is played on a field 100 yd/91 m long from goal line to goal line, followed by a 10-yd/9-m end zone at each end. There are goal posts on the far edge of these end zones. The field is 53.3 yd/48.8 m wide. Points are scored by running or passing the ball across the goal line (touchdown), by kicking it over the goal's crossbar after a touchdown (conversion or point after touchdown) or from the field during regular play (field goal), or by tackling an offensive player who has the ball in the end zone or blocking an offensive team's kick so it goes out of bounds from the end zone (safety). A touchdown counts 6 points, a field goal 3, a safety 2, and a conversion 1. College and professional games consist of four 15-min quarters; high-school quarters are 12 min long. Players wear padded uniforms and helmets.

Rules

A game begins with one team kicking off to the other. Kickoffs also take place after each touchdown and field goal and to start the second half of the game. The team that receives the ball becomes the offensive team; the other is the defensive team. Led by its quarterback, the offensive team tries to advance the ball by running with it or by passing it to an eligible teammate. A team must advance the ball at least 10 yd in four attempts (called ‘downs’), thereby achieving a ‘first down’ and earning another four attempts, or surrender the ball to the other team.

Each play begins with the center passing the ball back to a teammate. If a first down has not been achieved after three downs, the offensive team usually kicks (‘punts’) the ball to the other team. The offensive team may lose the ball immediately if the player carrying the ball loses control of it (‘fumbles’) and it is recovered by a defensive player, or if a pass is caught in the air (‘interception’) by a defensive player. Generally, separate groups of players on each team play offense and defense. Offensive players try to protect the person carrying or throwing the ball by blocking defensive players. The defensive players attempt to tackle the player with the ball. A play ends when the player with the ball is tackled or goes out of bounds, when a pass is incomplete, when possession of the ball changes, or when there is a score. The game is supervised by the referee, who usually has several other officials assisting him. Infractions of the rules result in penalties against the team whose player has broken the rule. Penalties result in a loss of yards, loss of a down, or – in rare cases – expulsion of a player from the game.

History

Football developed in the 19th century as a combination of soccer and rugby. The first intercollegiate game was played between Princeton and Rutgers in 1869. Modern football evolved in the 1880s as eastern colleges gradually adopted rules similar to those now in use. In the early 20th century, rules were passed to reduce violence and to allow the forward pass. The popularity of college football, which has continued unabated to the present, led to the formation of professional teams from the 1890s. What is now the National Football League (NFL) was founded in 1920. Although there were other professional leagues, the NFL remained dominant. Explosive growth occurred after World War II as attendance rose and television broadcasts added millions of fans. Another surge of popularity followed the merger of the American Football League (AFL) into the NFL, completed in 1970. There are now 32 teams in the NFL, divided into the American and National conferences. Since 1967, the champions of the two conferences have met in a title game called the Super Bowl.

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football - events

c. 206 BC	China, Former Han Empire	According to the Chinese poet Li-Yu (c. AD 50–c. 130), a game of zuzhu, an ancient Chinese form of football, is played on the emperor's birthday in 206 BC. The game he describes has some remarkable similarities to modern football, with a stuffed leather ball and two goal areas.
1457	Scotland	A statute of the Scottish parliament bans football and golf. The ban is repeated in 1471 and 1491, though probably with little effect. It is the first certain reference to the word ‘golf’.
1820	USA	The first football games are played in US colleges. The game is a form of hazing by sophomores inflicted on freshmen by kicking the freshmen instead of the ball. The game is banned in the 1830s because of the high number of injuries.
26 October 1863	UK	The Football Association is founded in London, England, by the representatives of 11 clubs. Their purpose is to establish ‘a definite code of rules for the regulation of the game’. All clubs are from the London area.
31 March 1883	UK	Blackburn Olympic defeat the Old Etonians 2–1 at The Oval, London, England, before a crowd of 8,000 people, to become the first team from the north of England to win the Football Association (FA) Cup.
1884	UK	Scotland wins the first football British International Championship, the world's oldest international football championship.
20 July 1885	UK	The Football Association in England legalizes professionalism.
1889	UK	Preston North End wins the inaugural English Football League Championship, and by also winning the Football Association (FA) Cup becomes the first team to complete the ‘double’.
21 May 1904	France	The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), a world governing body for football, is founded in France, without British support.
14 May 1938	UK, Germany	On the advice of the Football Association and the British Ambassador, the English team give the Nazi salute during the playing of ‘Deutschland über Alles’ before an international football match with Germany in Berlin, Germany. England win the game 6–3.
1949	England	Football as a spectator sport is more popular than ever before in England; a record total attendance figure for Football League of 41,271,424.
25 November 1953	England	England's footballers lose at Wembley in London, England, for the first time to an overseas team, beaten 6–3 by Hungary. Six months later, Hungary confirms its overwhelming superiority over England with a 7–1 victory in Budapest, Hungary.
1964	UK	Match of the Day, showing highlights of football matches, starts on British television.
30 July 1966	UK, West Germany	The host nation, England, wins football's World Cup, beating West Germany in the final at Wembley, London, 4–2 after extra time. The England forward Geoff Hurst scores the first ever hat trick in a World Cup final.
28 February 1972	UK	English women's football clubs are officially recognized by the English Football Association (FA) under the assurance that no matches are to be allowed between mixed teams or between men's teams and women's teams.The FA had banned women from playing at the grounds of clubs under its jurisdiction in 1921.
29 November 1978	UK	Viv Anderson of Nottingham Forest becomes the first black footballer to play for England.
15 April 1989	UK	Ninety-six Liverpool fans die in a crush during the Football Association (FA) Cup semifinal against Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough, Sheffield, England.
8 January 1996	Liberia	The Liberian footballer George Weah of A C Milan, Italy, becomes the first African to be voted FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) World Footballer of the Year. He was also the 1995 European and African Footballer of the Year.
10 May 1996	Netherlands, England	The Dutch footballer Ruud Gullit is named as Chelsea's player–manager. He is the first black manager of an English Football Association premiership side.
31 October 2000	England	In the wake of Kevin Keegan's resignation as the England team's football manager, the Football Association announces the appointment of the Swedish coach Sven-Goran Eriksson as the long-term replacement from July 2001.
28 May 2003	England	In the European Champions League football cup final staged in Manchester, England, AC Milan beats Juventus of Turin in a penalty shoot-out following a goalless draw after extra time. It is the first occasion that two Italian clubs have met in the final of the competition.
4 July 2004	Portugal	Greece is the unexpected winner of football's 2004 European Championship, beating the host country Portugal 1–0 in the final in Lisbon.
17 March 2007	England	After several years delay in its construction and high budget overruns, the new 90,000- capacity Wembley Stadium in London finally opens as the national home of English football.
21 November 2007		England fails to qualify for the 2008 European Championship football finals as the team loses 3–2 to Croatia at home at Wembley in their last group game. Northern Ireland also goes out of the competition, losing 1–0 in Spain.

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