It is understood that a form of ball-game which included kicking and using other parts of the body originated in China more than 3000 years ago.  From the sometimes savage Celtic and Viking football ceremonies through to Greek and Roman games and the "Tlatchi" of Central and South America to the game we have today, a myriad of forms of the sport have taken place.

During medieval times, the game was banned by England's King Edward as a distraction from archery practice whilst preparing for the war against France.

The sport's overwhelming popularity had always been as a crude folk game played by villagers, farm boys and apprentices.  Eventually, especially in England, when the game began to subject itself to rules it became more attractive to the middle classes and even the gentry.

Clubs grew within the vicinity of many English universities and public schools, this eventually led to the formation of the London Football Association which issued its first set of rules in 1863.

The sport with this specific set of rules was known locally as "Association Football" - "football" later became the generic term to describe the sport we know and love today.  The shortening of the word Association gave us the term "soccer".

The English introduced: the world's first international match - between England and Scotland in 1872; professionalism in 1885 and the first full-time league in 1888.  English sailors carried the sport to all corners of the globe until eventually, in 1908 the sport became a regular Olympic Games event

Although, in England, the sport had always struggled against Rugby Union for the title of premier football code, the introduction of the FA Cup and international matches along with new, lighter, smoother balls and better grounds which made the game easier to play, huge interest started to be generated.

Football's international governing body FIFA, was formed in 1904 and by 1930 an extremely successful World Cup was held.  Thirteen countries entered the first competition, which was eventually won by Uruguay.

Since this time, the World Cup, which is held generally held every four years has gone from success to success. The massive world wide coverage of the 2006 World Cup held in Germany proved that no team sport on the planet reaches the popularity of football, and the 2010 World Cup looks to be bigger than ever.

Recent years have seen the introduction of many exciting innovations. These include the World Club Championship first played in 2000 and the Women's World Cup in China in 1991 and our latest victory for our women's team, The Matildas.

Football now boasts over 200 national associations as members of FIFA (International Federation of Football Association), that is more than the number of countries belonging to the United Nations, along with the 250 million men and women who are registered to play football throughout the world.

From it's humble and sometimes violent beginnings, football has truly become the "beautiful world game".  There seems to be no other sport which reaches across age, gender, race, creed, skill level and economics to be available to everyone.  Wherever there is a patch of land and a round ball, no matter how crude, you will find football being played.