Football was in the 14th and 15th centuries referred to as ‘folk football’. The ancient game has roots in fertility rites, celebrating the return of spring. It was played in a form that villages competed against villages, kicking, throwing and carrying a wooden or leather ball, sometimes animal bladders across fields, streams and through narrow gateways and streets. At first, it was played by people of all sorts until some skilled village managers created games of sides of married and unmarried, suggesting that the game had origins in fertility rituals. The game which was considered violent, was then developed under the Renaissance Era, transforming it into a highly formalised play in rectangular spaces laid out in urban squares, especially in Italy. It was also ordered that players should be men of 15 to 45 years of age. The games kept being developed and becoming famous until the England Football Association was created in 1863, and the game was named ‘soccer’ instead of ‘folk football’. Modern football originated in Britain in the 19th Century. Before medieval times, ‘folk football’ games had been played in towns and villages according to local customs and with a minimum of rules, Britannica, an online encyclopaedia, notes. Since that time, football has spread to other parts of the world, and the game is present with an association in nearly all countries of the world. Each country has different leagues and the game is considered among the most famous in the world. According to Britannica, football’s governing body, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), estimated that at the turn of the 21st Century there were approximately 250 million football players and over 1.3 billion people “interested” in football.
