Who invented football?

Nobody invented football in one go. People kicked balls for thousands of years, but the game we play now, with its laws, came together in England in the mid-1800s. Here's the short version.

By Squadcard. Last updated 22 October 2026.

In short

Ball games played with the feet go back thousands of years, in China, Greece, Rome and medieval Europe.
Modern football took shape in English schools and universities in the 1800s, each with its own rules.
The Football Association was founded in London in 1863 and wrote the first agreed Laws of the Game.
The word soccer comes from "association" football, to tell it apart from rugby football.

Ancient ball games

Kicking games turn up all over history. In ancient China, cuju had players kick a ball through an opening in a net. The Greeks and Romans played ball games with hands and feet. In medieval England, mob football had whole villages chasing a ball between landmarks, with almost no rules, and it was banned more than once.

Schools and their rules

In the 1800s English public schools played their own versions: some allowed handling and running with the ball, others mostly kicking. When former pupils met at university, they needed common rules, and the Cambridge Rules of 1848 were an early attempt.

1863: The FA and the Laws of the Game

In October 1863 a group of London clubs met at the Freemasons' Tavern and founded The Football Association. By December they had agreed a set of laws. Running with the ball in the hands and hacking (kicking opponents' shins) were left out, and the clubs that wanted them went on to play rugby football.

Sheffield had its own football rules and clubs, including Sheffield FC, founded in 1857 and recognised as the oldest club still playing football. The two codes merged over the following years. In 1886 the four British associations formed the International Football Association Board (the IFAB), which still keeps the Laws of the Game today.

Football or soccer?

"Soccer" is English slang from the 1880s, from "association" football, in the same way rugby football became "rugger". It stuck in countries where another sport took the name football: the United States, Canada and Australia.

160 years on, most football is still played the way it started: friends on a Tuesday night. Squadcard is an app for football groups that play every week: who's in, fair teams, and ratings from your mates.