Medieval football is a modern term used for a wide variety of the localised informal football games which were invented and played in England during the Middle Ages. Alternative names include folk football, mob football and Shrovetide football. These games may be regarded as the ancestors of modern codes of football, and by comparison with later forms of football, the medieval matches were chaotic and had few rules.
A 1721 illustration of so-called "mob football", a variety of medieval football
Youths playing ball, carved on a misericord c. 1350 at Gloucester Cathedral.
Illustration of a game of Calcio Fiorentino in Florence from 1688
The 2016 game of 'bottle-kicking' in Hallaton, Leicestershire, actually played with three small wooden barrels. One of them can just be seen being held by a man at centre right.
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word football normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly called football include association football ; Australian rules football; Gaelic football; gridiron football ; International rules football; rugby league football; and rugby union football. These various forms of football share, to varying degrees, common origins and are known as "football codes".
American football (gridiron)
Association football (soccer)
Australian rules football
Gaelic football (GAA)
