An early reference to a ball game played in Britain comes from the 9th-century Historia Brittonum, attributed to Nennius, which describes "a party of boys . However, there was no generally accepted set of rules for rugby until 1871, when 21 clubs from London came together to form the Rugby Football Union (RFU). There is an alternative explanation, which is that football originally referred to a variety of games in medieval Europe that were played on foot.

Contemporary codes of football can be traced back to the codification of these games at English public schools during the 19th century, itself an outgrowth of medieval football. By early 1872 the Engineers were the first football team renowned for "play[ing] beautifully together". The boom in rail transport in Britain during the 1840s meant that people were able to travel farther and with less inconvenience than they ever had before. There is archival evidence of "foot-ball" games being played in various parts of Australia throughout the first half of the 19th century. The adjustable ball tether can fit ball sizes 3 to 5 and can be easily transported, which allows the bungee football trainer to be used on the go in all environments.The first side to have perfected the modern formation was Cambridge University AFC; [96] [97] [98] they also introduced the 2–3–5 "pyramid" formation. At the Freemasons' Tavern, Great Queen Street, London on the evening of 26 October 1863, representatives of several football clubs in the London Metropolitan area met for the inaugural meeting of the Football Association (FA). bib and a range of other fun superhero activities including stickers and colouring in sheet that's sure to entertain for hours. It soon adopted cricket fields and an oval ball, used specialised goal and behind posts, and featured bouncing the ball while running and spectacular high marking. Football was played in Ireland in 1308, with a documented reference to John McCrocan, a spectator at a "football game" at Newcastle, County Down being charged with accidentally stabbing a player named William Bernard.

S., [150] [151] [152] [153] with college rugby being the fastest growing [ clarification needed] [154] [155] college sport in that country. Wedderburn refers to what has been translated into modern English as "keeping goal" and makes an allusion to passing the ball ("strike it here"). While football continued to be played in various forms throughout Britain, its public schools (equivalent to private schools in other countries) are widely credited with four key achievements in the creation of modern football codes. In early October 1863, another new revised version of the Cambridge Rules was drawn up by a seven member committee representing former pupils from Harrow, Shrewsbury, Eton, Rugby, Marlborough and Westminster.The chronicler gives the earliest reference to a football pitch, stating that: "[t]he boundaries have been marked and the game had started. Football was adopted by a number of public schools as a way of encouraging competitiveness and keeping youths fit. Mulcaster's writings refer to teams ("sides" and "parties"), positions ("standings"), a referee ("judge over the parties") and a coach "(trayning maister)". The first rules share similarities with these games, and were shaped to suit to Australian conditions. One of the longest running football fixture is the Cordner-Eggleston Cup, contested between Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College, Melbourne every year since 1858.