Football

For details of extinct varieties of football invented and/or played during the Middle Ages in Europe, see the medieval football article.. Dictionary definitions from Wiktionary
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News stories from Wikinews. The different codes are listed below and are described more fully in their own articles. However, most people, both inside and outside France, are not aware of this, and assume that the stadium was called after the country France. In other countries or regions within them, the word "football" may refer to American football, Australian rules football, Canadian football, Gaelic football, or one of the two codes of rugby football: rugby league or rugby union. The name reflected this. However, even in the countries where football is the official name of association football, this name may be at odds with common usage. In particular, the mayor of Saint-Denis made it very clear that he wanted the new stadium to be a stadium of the northern suburbs of Paris, and not just a national stadium which happens to be located in the northern suburbs.

Of the 48 national FIFA affiliates in which English is an official or primary language, only five — Canada, the Marshall Islands, New Zealand, Samoa and the United States — use soccer in their name, while the rest use football. It was decided to call the stadium after the Pays de France, to give it a local touch. In most English-speaking countries, the word "football" usually refers to Association football, also known as soccer (soccer originally being a slang abbreviation of Association). Another example of the use of France in this meaning is the new Stade de France, which was built near Saint-Denis for the 1998 Football World Cup. Because of this, much friendly controversy has occurred over the term football, primarily because it is used in different ways in different parts of the English-speaking world. The name of the town literally means "Roissy in the Pays de France", and not "Roissy in the country France", as many people wrongly believe. The word "football", when used in reference to a specific game can mean any one of those described above. This fourth meaning is found in many place names, such as the town of Roissy-en-France, on whose territory is located Charles de Gaulle International Airport.

This situation endured until 1948, when at the instigation of the French league, the Rugby League International Federation (RLIF) was formed at a meeting in Bordeaux. Pays de France is now almost entirely built up, being but the northern extension of the Paris suburbs. However the rules of professional rugby varied from one country to another, and negotiations between various national bodies were required to fix the exact rules for each international match. Its historic main town is Saint-Denis, where the first gothic cathedral in the world was built in the 12th century, and inside which the kings of France are buried. In 1907, a New Zealand professional rugby team toured Australia and Britain, and as a result the New South Wales Rugby League was formed. "Plain of France"). Rugby league rules diverged significantly from rugby union in 1906, with the reduction of the team from 15 to 13 players, and the introduction of the play the ball (heeling the ball back after a tackle). Pays de France is also called Plaine de France (i.e.

However, the number of deaths and injuries did gradually decline. Pays de France is the extremely fertile plain located immediately north of Paris which supported one of the most productive agriculture during the Middle Ages and was responsible for the tremendous wealth of the kingdom of France before the Hundred Years' War, making possible the emergence of Gothic art and architecture which spread all over western Europe. The changes did not immediately have the desired effect, and 33 American football players were killed during 1908 alone. The province of Île-de-France is thus made up of several pays: Pays de France, Parisis, Hurepoix, French Vexin, and so on. The report of the meetings introduced many restrictions on tackling and two more divergences from rugby: the banning of mass formation plays, as well as the forward pass. French provinces are traditionally made up of several pays, which are the direct continuation of the pagi set up by the Roman administration during Antiquity. However, Harvard University had just built a concrete stadium, objected and proposed instead legalisation of the forward pass. In a fourth meaning, "France" refers only to the Pays de France, one of the many pays (Latin: pagi, singular pagus) of Île-de-France.

One proposed change was a widening of the playing field. In modern French, the French language is called le français, while the old language of Île-de-France is called le francien. The meetings are now considered to be the origin of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. It is not until the 19th and 20th centuries that the language of Île-de-France indeed became the language of the whole country France. This occurred reputedly at the behest of President Theodore Roosevelt, who was considered to be a fancier of the game, but who had threatened to ban it, unless the rules were modified to reduce the numbers of deaths and disabilities. This meaning is also found in the name of the French language (langue française), whose literal meaning is "language of Île-de-France". Consequently, a series of meetings was held by 19 colleges in 1905-06. Likewise, French Vexin was the part of Vexin inside Île-de-France, as opposed to Normandy Vexin (Vexin normand) which was inside Normandy.

By the early 20th century in the USA, this had resulted in national controversy and American football was banned by a number of colleges. French Brie, the area where the famous Brie cheese is produced, is the part of Brie that was annexed to the royal demesne, as opposed to Champagne Brie (Brie champenoise) which was annexed by Champagne. Both forms of rugby and American football were noted at the time for serious injuries, as well as the deaths of a significant number of players. This meaning is found in some geographic names, such as French Brie (Brie française) and French Vexin (Vexin français). Eventually, to differentiate the two codes of rugby, the code played by clubs which remained members of national federations affiliated to the IRFB became known as Rugby Union. In a third meaning, "France" refers specifically to the province of Île-de-France (with Paris at its centre) which historically was the heart of the royal demesne. The separate Lancashire and Yorkshire competitions of the NRFU merged in 1901, forming the Northern Rugby League, the first time the name Rugby League was used officially. This is the most common meaning.

Within a few years the NRFU rules had started to diverge from the RFU, most notably with the abolition of the line out. In a second meaning, it refers to metropolitan France only. In 1895 representatives of the northern clubs met in Huddersfield to form the Northern Rugby Football Union (NRFU), a professional competition. In a first meaning, "France" refers to the whole French Republic. In Britain, by the 1890s, a long-standing Rugby Football Union ban on professional players was causing regional tensions within rugby football, as many players in northern England were working class and could not afford to take time off to train, travel, play and recover from injuries. The name "France" (and its adjective "French") can have four different meanings which it is important to distinguish in order to avoid ambiguities. Professionalism was beginning to creep into the various codes of football. In a few languages (essentially Greek and Breton), France is known as "Gaul".

The International Rugby Football Board (IRFB) was founded in 1886, but rifts were beginning to emerge in the code. In almost all the languages of the world, France is known by the word "France" or any of its derivatives. The prime example of this differentiation was the lack of an offside rule (an attribute which, for many years, was shared only by other Irish games like hurling, and by Australian rules football). Nonetheless, contemporary Frenchmen could not help noticing the striking similarity between the two names, and it added to the aura surrounding de Gaulle. Davan's rules showed the influence of games such as hurling and a desire to formalise an Irish code of football distinct from Rugby and Association football. William and Guillaume). The first Gaelic football rules were drawn up by Maurice Davan and published in the United Ireland magazine on February 7, 1887. It seems that "Gaulle" comes from an old Germanic word meaning "wall", where w- evolved into g- under the influence of French (cf.

The GAA sought to promote traditional Irish sports, such as hurling and to reject "foreign" (particularly English) imports. Note that the family name of Charles de Gaulle (with two "l") has nothing to do with the name Gaul (French: Gaule, with one "l"). There was no serious attempt to unify and codify Irish varieties of football, until the establishment of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) in 1884. The adjective Gallic is sometimes used to refer to French people, especially in a derisive and critical way, such as "Gallic pride" or "Gallic hygiene". Caid had begun to give way to a "rough-and-tumble game" which even allowed tripping. In English the word Gaul is never used in a modern context. The rules of the English FA were being distributed widely. The adjective gaulois is also used to describe a kind of humour located below the belt.

Trinity College, Dublin was an early stronghold of Rugby (see the Developments in the 1850s section, above). During the French Third Republic, the authorities often referred to notre vieille Nation gauloise ("our old Gallic Nation"), a case in which the adjective gaulois is used with a positive connotation. By the 1870s, Rugby and Association football had started to become popular in Ireland. The adjective gaulois (Gallic) is still sometimes used when a Frenchman wants to stress some idiosyncrasies of the French people entrenched in history, such as notre vieux fond gaulois querelleur ("the love of quarrels of our old Gallic stock"), a phrase used when denouncing French propensity for strikes or controversies. "Wrestling", "holding" opposing players, and carrying the ball were all allowed. Gaul is in the plural in the title, reflecting the three Gallic entities identified by the Romans (Celtica, Belgica, and Aquitania). Ferris, described two main forms of caid during this period: the "field game" in which the object was to put the ball through arch-like goals, formed from the boughs of two trees, and; the epic "cross-country game" which took up most of the daylight hours of a Sunday on which it was played, and was won by one team taking the ball across a parish boundary. The only current use of the word is in the title of the leader of the French bishops, the archbishop of Lyon, whose official title is Primate of the Gauls (Primat des Gaules).

One observer, Father W. Today, in modern French, the word Gaule has completely disappeared, and is only used in a historical context. Main article: History of Gaelic football. In the mid-19th century, various traditional football games, referred to collectively as caid, remained popular in Ireland, especially in County Kerry. In fact, for as long as the cultural elites of Europe used Latin predominantly (until the 18th century), the name Gallia continued to be used alongside the name France. (The Canadian Rugby Union was not formed until 1965.) American football was also frequently described as "rugby" in the 1880s. This name continued to be used for a very long time after the Franks arrived in what is now France. For example, the Canadian Rugby Football Union, founded in 1884 was the forerunner of the Canadian Football League, rather than a Rugby Union body. Before the arrival of the Franks, France was called Gaul (Latin: Gallia; French: Gaule).

One of these was that Canadian football, for many years, did not officially distinguish itself from rugby. These new coins were called francs, because they were minted to "free" the king. Over the years Canadian football absorbed some developments in American football, but also retained many unique characteristics. In order to raise the money to pay the ransom, a new coinage had to be minted. successful tackles). The English asked for a ransom to liberate the king, which amounted to twice the yearly income of France. These were complemented in 1882 by another of Camp's innovations: a team had to surrender possession if they did not gain five yards after three downs (i.e. During the Hundred Years' War, King John II of France was captured by the English at the Battle of Poitiers (1356).

In 1880, Yale coach Walter Camp, devised a number of major changes to the American game, beginning with the reduction of teams from 15 to 11 players, followed by reduction of the field area by almost half, and; the introduction of the scrimmage, in which a player heeled the ball backwards, to begin a game. "freemason"). US colleges did not generally return to soccer until the early twentieth century. "free port") or franc-maçon (i.e. Princeton, Rutgers and others continued to compete using soccer-based rules for a few years before switching to the rugby-based rules of Harvard and its competitors. The meaning "free" was lost, except in a few set phrases, such as port franc (i.e. The convention decided that, in the US game, four touchdowns would be worth one goal; in the event of a tied score, a goal converted from a touchdown would take precedence over four touch-downs. In modern French, franc means "frank, sincere".

However, a touch-down (as it was also known in rugby football at the time) only counted toward the score if neither side kicked a field goal. Instead, the name of the currency comes from Old French franc, a word which meant "free", directly borrowed from the Germanic word frank ("free"). In 1876, at the Massasoit Convention, it was agreed by these universities to adopt most of the Rugby Football Union rules. Contrary to what many people believe, the name of the former French currency, the franc, does not come from the name of the country. Within a few years, however, Harvard had both adopted McGill's rugby rules and had persuaded other US university teams to do the same. However, rather than the ethnic name of the Franks coming from the word frank ("free"), it is more probable that the word frank ("free") comes from the ethnic name of the Franks, the connection being that only the Franks, as the conquering class, had the status of freemen. This made it easy for Harvard to adapt to the rugby-based game played by McGill and the two teams alternated between their respective sets of rules. Another proposed etymology is that Frank means "the free men", based on the fact that the word frank meant "free" in the ancient Germanic languages.

At the time, Harvard students are reported to have played the "Boston Game" — a running code — rather than the FA-based kicking games favored by US universities. The name of the Franks itself is said to come from the Proto-Germanic word *frankon which means "javelin, lance". Modern American football grew out of a match between McGill University of Montreal, and Harvard University in 1874. In order to distinguish from the Frankish Empire of Charlemagne, France is called Frankreich, while the Frankish Empire is called Frankenreich. This is also often considered to be the first US game of college football, in the sense of a game between colleges (although the eventual form of American football would come from rugby, not soccer). Noticeably, in German, France is still called Frankreich, which literally means "Reich (realm) of the Franks". The first match generally said to have occurred under English FA (soccer) rules in the USA was a game between Princeton and Rutgers in 1869. The French state has been in continuous existence since 843 (except for a brief interruption in 885-887), with an unbroken line of heads of states since the first king of Francia Occidentalis (Charles the Bald) to the current president of the French Republic (Jacques Chirac).

The game gradually gained a following, and the Montreal Football Club was formed in 1868, the first recorded football club in Canada. Since the name Francia Orientalis had disappeared, there arose the habit to refer to Francia Occidentalis as Francia only, from which the word France is derived. However, the first game of "rugby" in Canada is generally said to have taken place in Montreal, in 1865, when British Army officers played local civilians. The Battle of Bouvines in 1214 definitely marked the end of the efforts by the Holy Roman Empire to reunify the old Frankish Empire by conquering France. Bethune devised rules based on the Rugby School game. The kings of Francia Occidentalis successfully opposed this claim, and managed to preserve Francia Occidentalis as an independent kingdom, distinct from the Holy Roman Empire. Barlow Cumberland and Frederick A. The rulers of Francia Orientalis, who soon claimed the imperial title and wanted to reunify the Frankish Empire, dropped the name Francia Orientalis and called their realm the Holy Roman Empire (see History of Germany).

In 1864, at Trinity College, Toronto, F. "Eastern Frankland"). The club may have invented the "Boston Game", a running code which was being played several years later in Massachusetts. "Western Frankland") and Francia Orientalis (i.e. However, the rules that the Oneida club used are also unknown, and it was formed before the FA rules were formulated. At the Treaty of Verdun in 843, the Frankish Empire was divided in three parts, and eventually only two: Francia Occidentalis (i.e. It has often been said that this club was the first to play soccer outside Britain. Originally it applied to the whole Frankish Empire, extending from southern France to eastern Germany.

The first "football club" in the USA was the short-lived Oneida Football Club in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1862. The name France comes from Medieval Latin Francia, which literally means "land of the Franks, Frankland". A football club was formed at the university soon afterwards, although its rules of play at this stage are unclear: it is not known whether they played a kicking or handling game, or both, and its members mostly played against each other. A Gallup poll established that 15% of the French population attend places of worship. The first documented football match in Canada was a game played at University College, University of Toronto on November 9, 1861. When questioned about their religion, 62% answered Roman Catholic, 6% Muslim, 2% Protestant, 1% Jewish, 2% "other religions" (except for Orthodox or Buddhist, which were negligible), 26% "no religion" and 1% declined to answer. In 1827, a Harvard University student composed a humorous epic poem called The Battle of the Delta, one of the first accounts of football in American universities. 33% declared that "atheist" described them rather or very well, and 51% said they were "Christian".

By the 1820s, a game known as Ballown was being played at the College of New Jersey (later known as Princeton University) and Old Division Football was being played at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. However, in a 2003 poll 41% said that the existence of God was "excluded" or "unlikely". As was the case in Britain, by the early 19th century, North American schools and universities played their own local games, between sides made up of students. Statistics from an unspecified source and date given in the CIA World Factbook gives the following number: Roman Catholic 83 to 88%, Muslim 5 to 10%, Protestant 2%, Jewish 1%. (Ironically, Blackheath now lobbied to ban hacking.) The first official RFU rules were adopted in June 1871. The government does not maintain statistics as to the religion of its inhabitants. However, there was no generally accepted set of rules for rugby until 1871, when 21 clubs in England came together to form the Rugby Football Union (RFU). Tensions occasionally erupt about alleged or real discrimination against minorities; see Islam in France.

There were also "rugby" clubs in Ireland, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The dominant concept of the relationships between the public sphere and religions is that of laïcité, which implies that the government and government institutions (such as schools) should not endorse any particular religion or intervene in religious dogma, and that religions should refrain from intervening in policy-making. In Britain, by 1870, there were about 75 clubs playing variations of the Rugby School game, including Blackheath (founded in 1858 and arguably the world's oldest surviving, non-university rugby club). Freedom of religion is constitutionally a right, inspired by the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. These first FA rules still contained elements that are recognisable in other games for instance, a player could make a fair catch and claim a mark and if a player touched the ball behind the opponents' goal line, his side was entitled to a free kick at the goal 15 yards from the goal line. Traditionally a predominantly Roman Catholic country, yet also with anticlerical leanings, France has since the 1970s been a very secular country. After the final meeting on 8 December the FA published the "Laws of Football", the first comprehensive set of rules for the game later known as Association football (or, colloquially, soccer). She also features on everyday articles such as postage stamps and coins.

The motion was carried nonetheless but at the final meeting, Campbell withdrew his club from the FA. Recent ones are Sophie Marceau, and Laetitia Casta. He said, "hacking is the true football". In recent times, famous French actresses are given the title of Marianne. Campbell, the representative from Blackheath and the first FA treasurer, objected strongly. She was represented in several different manners, depending on whether the aim was to emphasize her revolutionary nature or her "wisdom." Over time, the Phrygian cap was felt to be too seditious, and was replaced by a diadem or a crown. W. Under the Third Republic, statues, and especially busts, of Marianne began to proliferate, particularly in town halls.

Most of the delegates were favourable to this suggestion but F. Mediterranean seamen and convicts manning the galleys also wore a similar type of cap. At the fifth meeting a motion was proposed that these two rules be expunged from the FA rules. It is believed that revolutionaries from the South of France adopted the Phrygian cap as it symbolised liberty, having been worn by freed slaves in both Greece and Rome. The two contentious draft rules were as follows:. Anti-revolutionaries of the time derisively called her La République. The Cambridge rules differed from the draft FA rules in two significant areas; namely 'running with the ball' and 'hacking' (kicking an opponent in the shins). The origins of the name Marianne are unknown, but Marie-Anne was a very common first name in the 18th century.

At the beginning of the fourth meeting, attention was drawn to the fact that a number of newspapers had recently published the Cambridge Rules of 1863. The earliest representations of Marianne are of a woman wearing a Phrygian cap. At the close of the third meeting, a draft set of rules were published that most of the delegates were happy to endorse, but this agreement was not to last. She is an allegorical figure of liberty and the Republic and first appeared at the time of the French Revolution. In total, six meetings were held between October and December 1863. Marianne is a symbol of the French Republic. Rugby, Eton and Winchester did not even reply. The principal cities by population include:.

With the exception of Thring at Uppingham, most schools declined. If we add up people with mother tongue and people with some exposure to the language before the age of 5, then the five most important languages in metropolitan France are (note that the percentages add up to more than 100, because many people are now counted twice):. The first meeting resulted in the issuing of a request for representatives of the public schools to join the association. It is important to read the notes at the Languages of France article in order to correctly interpret the numbers. The aim was to produce a single code of football that everybody could agree to and to set up a governing body for the regulation of the game. Here is a list of the nine most prominent mother tongues in France based on Enquête familiale. Charterhouse was the only school represented at that first meeting. The results were published in Enquête familiale, Insee, 1999.

The meeting had been called, not by public school figures, but by members of several football clubs in the London Metropolitan area. This is the first time serious statistics were computed about the proportion of mother tongues in France. It was the world's first official football body. One of the questions was about the languages that their parents spoke with them before the age of 5. On the evening of October 26, 1863 at the Freemason's Tavern in Great Queen Street, London, The Football Association (FA) met for the first time. At the 1999 census, INSEE sampled 380,000 adult people all across Metropolitan France, and asked them questions about their family situation. This later revised version of the Cambridge Rules rules were to form the basis of what eventually became the rules adopted by The Football Association (FA). Some languages spoken by immigrants are also frequently spoken, especially in large cities: Portuguese, Maghreb Arabic, several Berber languages, several languages of Sub-Saharan Africa, Turkish, several spoken variants of Chinese (most notably Wu, Cantonese, Min Nan, and Mandarin), Vietnamese, and Khmer are the most frequently spoken.

In early October of 1863 a new revised set of Cambridge Rules rules were drawn up by a seven man committee representing former pupils from Harrow, Shrewsbury, Eton, Rugby, Marlborough and Westminster. They are now taught at some schools, though French remains the only official language in use by the government, local or national. Thring, who had been one of the driving forces behind the original Cambridge Rules, was now a master at Uppingham School and he issued his own rules of what he called "The Simplest Game" (these are also known as the Uppingham Rules). These historical regional languages have been known as patois, though this has been considered depreciative. C. However, several regional languages (including Alsatian, Basque, Breton, Caribbean Creole, Catalan, Corsican, Flemish, Franco-Provençal dialects, Gascon, Lorraine German dialect, Norman, Occitan, and some Oïl dialects - e.g., Picard) are also occasionally understood and spoken, mostly by elderly people, but the French government and state school system discouraged the use of any of them until recently. In 1862, J. The sole official language of France is French.

The official name of the code is now Australian football. In the most extreme case, the population of Creuse fell by 24%. By 1866, however, several other clubs in the Colony of Victoria had agreed to play an updated version of the Melbourne FC rules, which were later known as "Victorian Rules" and/or "Australasian Rules". Over the period 1960-1999 fifteen rural départements experienced a decline in population. Australian Rules is sometimes said to be the first form of football to be codified but — as was the case in all kinds of football at the time, there was no official body supporting the rules — and play varied from one club to another. A perennial political issue concerns rural depopulation. The 1859 rules did not include some elements which would soon become important to the game, such as the requirement to bounce the ball while running. France thereby replaced the United States as the world's top destination for asylum-seekers in 2004.

The club had a strong and long-standing association with the Melbourne Cricket Club and cricket ovals — which vary in size and are much larger than the fields used in other forms of football — became the standard playing field. According to the UNHCR, the number of people seeking political asylum in France rose by around 3 % between 2003 and 2004, while in the same period, the number of asylum applications submitted in the United States fell by about 29 %. However, running while holding the ball was allowed and although it was not specified in the rules, an oval ball (like those later used in rugby) was used. By 2050 it is estimated that the population of the European Union (of the current 25 members) will have declined to 445 million inhabitants, of whom 17.5% will be living in France. A free kick was awarded for a mark (clean catch). In mid-2004 the EU had 460 million inhabitants, 13.6% of whom were living in France (including overseas départements). These men had similar backgrounds to Wills and their code also had pronounced similarities to the Sheffield rules, most notably in the absence of an offside rule. It would be the first time since the 1860s that France is the largest Nation of Europe (Russia excluded).

Harrison). If these estimates become reality, it may fundamentally alter the balance of power in Brussels. A. Demographers now estimate that by 2050 metropolitan France's population will be 75 million, at which time it will be the most populated country of the European Union, above Germany (71 million), the United Kingdom (59 million), and Italy (43 million). C. By 2050, demographers initially thought the population of metropolitan France would be 64 million inhabitants, but they now agree that their estimates were too conservative, being based on the 1990s growth rate of population. Thompson and Thomas Smith (some sources include H. At the moment, France is the third most populous country of Europe, behind Russia and Germany.

B. These unexpected results bear great consequences for the future. Hammersley, J. In 2004 the natural increase in France's population reached 256,000, but figures for other European countries are not available yet. J. In 2003, France's natural population growth (excluding immigration) was responsible for almost all the natural growth in European population: the population of the European Union increased by 216,000 inhabitants (without immigration), of which 211,000 was the increase in France's population alone, and 5,000 was the increase in all the other countries of the EU combined. They were drawn up at the Parade Hotel, East Melbourne on May 17, by Wills, W. France is now well ahead of all other European countries (except for the Republic of Ireland).

The club's rules of 1859 are the oldest surviving set of laws for Australian Rules. 2004 was the year with the highest increase in French population since 1974. The Melbourne Football Club was also founded in 1858 and is the oldest surviving Australian football club, but the rules it used during its first season are unknown. In 2004, population growth was 0.68%, almost reaching North American levels. It appears that Australian Rules also has some similarities to the Indigenous Australian game of Marn Grook (see above). Between 1999-2003, annual population growth was 0.58%. There were pronounced similarities between Wills's game and Gaelic football (as it would be codified in 1887). The census revealed that population growth rebounded significantly after the 1999 census, something nobody had anticipated.

The extent to which Wills was directly influenced by British and Irish football games is unknown, but there were similarities between some of them and his game. However, first results from the 2004 French census have greatly surprised demographers. Wills had been educated in England, at Rugby School and had played cricket for Cambridge University. After 1974, France's population growth stalled, and reached its nadir in the 1990s with only 0.39% annual growth, being now more in tune with the rest of Europe, which has entered demographic decline. Tom Wills began to develop Australian Rules football in Melbourne during 1858. On the other hand, it experienced a much stronger growth in the second half of the 20th century than the rest of Europe or indeed its own growth in the previous centuries. (For more details see: Oldest football clubs.). Unlike the rest of Europe, France did not experience a strong population growth in the 19th century and first half of the 20th century.

By the end of the 1850s, many clubs had been formed throughout the English-speaking world, to play various codes of football. Starting with the 19th century, the historical evolution of the population in France has been extremely atypical in the Western World. In 1867 the Sheffield Football Association was formed by a number of clubs in the local area and the Sheffield clubs continued to play by their own rules until they decided to fall in line with the FA in 1878.). Nevertheless, the immigrants from other European countries have an easier time blending in, while the 'non-European' groups tend to assimilate at a slower pace, because of greater cultural barriers and social discrimination which is, according to left-wing thought, tied to economic exploitation. (How long this set of rules lasted is unclear, but by 1866, when Sheffield played a combined FA side, they were employing their own version of offside that differed from the FA rule. It is currently estimated that about 40% of the French population descends in varying amounts from these different waves of migrations, making France the most ethnically diverse country of Europe, despite the still popular stereotypes of France as an essentially Gallic country. There were some similarities to the Cambridge Rules, but players were allowed to push or hit the ball with their hands, and there was no offside rule at all, so that players known as 'kick throughs' could be permanently positioned near the opponents' goal. Besides these "historic" populations, new populations have migrated to France since the 19th century: Belgians, Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Poles, Armenians, Jews from Eastern Europe and the Maghreb, Arabs and Berbers from the Maghreb, Black Africans, and Chinese, to list only the most prominent.

Creswick and Prest devised their own version of football: the Sheffield Rules. Four basic European ethnic stocks - Celtic (Gallic and Breton), Aquitanian (Basque related), Latin, and Germanic (Franks, Visigoths, Burgundians, Vikings) - have blended over the centuries to make up its present population. It was founded by former Harrow School pupils Nathaniel Creswick and William Prest, in 1857. Since prehistoric times, France has been a crossroads of trade, migrations, and invasions. Sheffield Football Club also has a claim to be the world's oldest football club, in the sense of a club not attached to a school or university.
. Dublin University Football Club — founded at Trinity College, Dublin in 1854 and later famous as a bastion of the Rugby School game — is arguably the world's oldest football club in any code. Today the two countries form what is often referred to as the "core" countries in favour of greater integration of the European Union.

The increasing interest and development of the various English football games was shown in 1851, when William Gilbert, a shoemaker from Rugby, exhibited both round and oval-shaped balls at the Great Exhibition in London. Since the end of the Second World War the government made efforts to integrate more and more with Germany, both economically and politically. However, the Cambridge Rules were not widely adopted. Large tracts of fertile land, the application of modern technology, and EU subsidies have combined to make France the leading agricultural producer in Europe. Handling was only allowed for a player to take a clean catch entitling them to a free kick and there was a primitive offside rule, disallowing players from "loitering" around the opponents' goal. France is also the most energy independent Western country due to heavy investment in nuclear power, which also makes France the smallest producer of carbon dioxide among the seven most industrialised countries in the world. The rules clearly favour the kicking game. France has an important aerospace industry led by the European consortium Airbus and is the only European power to have its own national spaceport (Centre Spatial Guyanais).

No copy of these rules now exists, but a revised version from circa 1856 is held in the library of Shrewsbury School. It features cities of high cultural interest (Paris being the foremost), beaches and seaside resorts, ski resorts, and rural regions that many enjoy for their beauty and tranquillity (green tourism). An eight-hour meeting produced what amounted to the first set of modern rules, known as the Cambridge Rules. With over 75 million foreign tourists in 2003, France is ranked as the first tourist destination in the world, ahead of Spain (52.5 million) and the United States (40.4 million). Thring, who were both formerly at Shrewsbury School, called a meeting at Trinity College, Cambridge with 12 other representatives from Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester and Shrewsbury. Liberal and Keynesian economists have different answers to that issue. J.C. In their opinion, it is an issue of structural reforms, in order to increase the size of the working population in the overall population.

de Winton and Mr. As many economists have stressed repeatedly over the years, the main issue with the French economy is not an issue of productivity. H. This phenomenon is the result of almost thirty years of massive unemployment in France, which has led to three consequences reducing the size of the working population: about 10% of the active population is without a job; students delay as long as possible their entry into labour market; and finally the French government gives various incentives to workers to retire in their early 50s, though these are now receding. In 1848 at Cambridge University, Mr. In 2003, 41.5% of the French population was working, compared to 50.7% in the US, and 47.3% in the UK. While local rules for athletics could be easily understood by visiting schools, it was nearly impossible for schools to play each other at football, as each school played by its own rules. In fact, France has one of the lowest percentage of its population at work among the OECD countries.

Inter-school sporting competitions became possible. The reason for this is because a much smaller percentage of the French population is working compared to the US, which sinks the GDP per capita of France, despite its higher productivity. The boom in rail transport in Britain during the 1840s meant that people were able to travel further and with less inconvenience than they ever had before. Despite a higher productivity per hour worked than in the US, France's GDP per capita is significantly lower than the US GDP per capita, being in fact comparable to the GDP per capita of the other European countries, which is on average 30% below US level. This further assisted the spread of the Rugby game. [6]. These were the first set of written rules (or code) for any form of football. [5] In 2004, the GDP per hour worked in France was 47.7 USD, ranking France above the United States (46.3 USD per hour worked), Germany (42.1 USD per hour worked), the United Kingdom (39.6 USD per hour worked), or Japan (32.5 USD per hour worked).

In 1845, three boys at Rugby School were tasked with codifying the rules then being used at the school. In the 2005 edition of OECD in Figures, the OECD also noted that France leads the G7 countries in terms of productivity (measured as GDP per hour worked). However, some have argued that this club is too poorly documented to be considered to have existed since that time. At the same time, French companies invested 57.3 billion USD outside of France, ranking France as the second most important outward direct investor in the OECD, behind the United States (173.8 billion USD of outward FDI), but ahead of the United Kingdom (55.3 billion USD of outward FDI), Japan (28.8 billion USD of outward FDI), or Germany (2.6 billion USD of outward FDI). The club is said to have played the Rugby School game. With 47 billion USD of foreign direct investments, France ranked above the United States (39.9 billion USD of FDI received), the United Kingdom (14.6 billion USD of FDI received), Germany (12.9 billion USD of FDI received), or Japan (6.3 billion USD of FDI received). For example, it is said that the world's first "football club" (that is one which was not part of a school or university), was the Guy's Hospital Football Club, founded in London in 1843. Yet according to the OECD, in 2003 France was the OECD country that received the most foreign direct investment (Luxembourg excepted, where foreign direct investment was mostly monetary transfers to banks located in that country).

During this period, the Rugby School rules appear to have spread at least as far, perhaps further, than the other schools' games. It was also the fourth-largest importer of manufactured goods (behind the United States, Germany, and China, but ahead of the United Kingdom and Japan). At Charterhouse and Westminster the boys were confined to playing their ball game within the cloisters making the rough and tumble of the handling game difficult. According to the OECD, in 2004 France was the world's fifth-largest exporter of manufactured goods, behind the United States, Germany, Japan, and China, (but ahead of the United Kingdom). The division into these two camps was partly the result of circumstances in which the games were played. France joined 10 other EU members to launch the Euro on January 1, 1999, with euro coins and banknotes completely replacing the French franc in early 2002. Some favoured a game in which the ball could be carried (as at Rugby, Marlborough and Cheltenham), whilst others preferred a game where kicking and dribbling the ball was promoted (as at Eton, Harrow, Westminster and Charterhouse). A member of the G8 group of leading industrialised countries, it ranked as the fifth-largest economy in the world in 2004, behind the United States, Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

Soon, two schools of thought about how football should be played had developed. The government is slowly selling off holdings in France Télécom, Air France, as well as the insurance, banking, and defence industries. However, by 1841 (some sources say 1842), running with the ball had become acceptable at Rugby, as long as a player gathered the ball on the full or from a bounce, he was not offside and he did not pass the ball. It has been gradually relaxing its control over these sectors since the early 1990s. In 1823 William Webb Ellis, a pupil at Rugby School, is said to have "showed a fine disregard for the rules of football, as played in his time" by picking up the ball and running to the opponents' goal, but the evidence for this bold act does not stand up to close examination. The government retains considerable influence over key segments of infrastructure sectors, with majority ownership of railway, electricity, aircraft, and telecommunication firms. Each school drafted their own rules as they saw fit and they often varied widely and were changed over time with each new intake of pupils. France's economy combines extensive private enterprise (nearly 2.5 million companies registered) with substantial (though declining) government intervention (see dirigisme).

Football had come to be adopted by a number of public schools as a way of encouraging competitiveness and keeping youths fit. See Islands controlled by France in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. These gradually evolved into the modern football games that we know today. France also maintains control over a number of small uninhabited islands in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean: Bassas da India, Clipperton Island, Europa Island, Glorioso Islands, Juan de Nova Island, Tromelin Island. Thus the public school boys, who were free from constant toil, became the inventors of organised football games with formal codes of rules. The departmental and overseas collectivities have an intermediate status between overseas départements and overseas territories. Feast day football on the public highway was at an end. In contrast, the overseas "départements" used the French franc and now use the euro.

They had neither the time nor the inclination to engage in sport for recreation and, at the time, many children were part of the labour force. The Pacific territories continue to use the Pacific Franc whose value is linked to that of the Euro. By the early 19th century, (before the Factory Act of 1850), most working class people in Britain had to work six days a week, often for over twelve hours a day. Overseas territories and countries form part of the French Republic, but do not form part of the EU or its fiscal area. Frankland also mentions the "Football Fields" at Eton. The French Republic is further made up of a number of overseas territories, overseas countries, departmental collectivities and overseas collectivities. Nugae Etonenses (1766) by T. Four of the départements are overseas départements which are an integral part of France (and the EU) and thus enjoy a status similar to metropolitan départments.

He describes how "...we may play quoits, or hand-ball, or bat-and-ball, or football; these games are innocent and lawful...". Historically, the cantons were also territorial collectivities with elected assemblies. The first specific mention of football can be found in a Latin poem by Robert Matthew, a Winchester scholar from 1643 to 1647. Until 1940, the arrondissements were also territorial collectivities with elected assemblies (arrondissement council), but these were suspended by the Vichy regime and abolished by the Fourth Republic in 1946. Horman had been headmaster at Eton College and Winchester and his Latin textbook includes a translation exercise with the phrase "We wyll playe with a ball full of wynde". The régions, départements, and communes are known as territorial collectivities (collectivités territoriales), and possess local assemblies and executives. The earliest evidence that games resembling football were being played at English public schools — attended by boys from the upper, upper-middle and professional classes — comes from the Vulgaria by William Horman in 1519. The departments are subdivided into 342 arrondissements and 4,035 cantons which serve only administrative and electoral purposes, and 36,682 communes as the lowest tier.

(The Duke also presented the ball before the match — a ritual that continues to this day.) In 1835, the British Highways Act banned the playing of football on public highways, with a maximum penalty of forty shillings. The departments are numbered (mainly alphabetically) and this number is used in postal codes and vehicle number plates. In 1827, the annual Alnwick Shrove Tuesday game proceeded only after the Duke of Northumberland provided a field for the game to be played on. The régions are subdivided into 100 départements. Even in the early modern era, efforts were made to ban football at a local level, and force it off the streets. France has 26 administrative régions: 21 metropolitan régions, the territorial collectivity of Corse (Corsica) (commonly referred to as a région), and four overseas régions. Charles II of England gave the game royal approval in 1681 when he attended a fixture between the Royal Household and the Duke of Albemarle's servants.
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In the period following the English Civil War, Oliver Cromwell had some success in suppressing football games, although they became even more popular following the Restoration, in 1660. About 10% of France's defence budget goes toward its force de frappe, or nuclear weapons.
. ("Spurn" literally means to kick away, thus implying that the game involved kicking a ball between players.). In most other EU countries, defence spending is less than 1.5% of GDP. Shakespeare also mentions the game in A Comedy of Errors (Act II Scene 1):. Those two countries account for 40% of EU defence spending. Shakespeare's play King Lear (which was first published in 1608) contains the line: "Nor tripped neither, you base football player" (Act I Scene 4). Among the larger European economies, France and the United Kingdom are the only significant spenders on defence: France with 2.6% of GDP, and the UK at 2.4%, according to 2003 figures from NATO.

That same year, the modern spelling of the word "football" is first recorded, when it was used disapprovingly by William Shakespeare. The French armed forces are divided into four branches:. By 1608, the local authorities in Manchester were complaining that:. France hosts the headquarters of the OECD, UNESCO, Interpol, and the International Bureau for Weights and Measures in charge of the international metric system. All of these attempts failed to curb the people's desire to play the game. France is also a member of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), the Indian Ocean Commission (COI), an associate member of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) and a leading member of the International Francophone Organisation (OIF) of fifty-one fully or partly French-speaking countries. Despite evidence that Henry VIII of England played the game — in 1526, he ordered the first known pair of football boots — in 1540 Henry also attempted a ban. The outcome of the vote was widely regarded as crucial for the future development of the EU, as well as for France's ability to retain leadership in Europe.

In Scotland, football was banned by James I in 1424 and by James II in 1457. On May 29, 2005 the French electorate voted in the referendum with about 55% against ratification of the proposed Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. In England, the outlawing of sport was attempted by Richard II in 1389 and Henry IV in 1401. French foreign policy has been largely shaped by membership of the European Union. In France it was banned by Phillippe V in 1319, and again by Charles V in 1369. Lately its share of the votes has remained stable at approximately 16%. Football featured in similar attempts by monarchs to ban recreational sport across Europe. The right-wing Front National party made significant inroads in the early 1980's, seized on voter concern about the perceived decline of France and 'national dissolution' as a result of immigration and globalisation, by advocating tougher law-and-order and immigration policies.

The reasons for the ban by Edward III, on June 12, 1349, were explicit: football and other recreations distracted the populace from practicing archery, which was necessary for war, and after the great loss of life that had occurred during the Black Death, England needed as many archers as possible. For the past thirty years, French politics has been characterised by the two politically opposed groupings: one left-wing, centred around the French Socialist Party, and the other right-wing, centred around the Rassemblement pour la République (RPR) and its successor the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP). King Edward II was so troubled by the unruliness of football in London that on April 13, 1314 he issued a proclamation banning it:. The government has a strong influence in shaping the agenda of Parliament. Between 1324 and 1667, football was banned in England alone by more than 30 royal and local laws. Senators are chosen by electoral college for 6-year terms (originally 9-year terms), and one half of the seats are submited to election every 3 years starting in September 2008.^[4] The Senate's legislative powers are limited; in the event of disagreement between the two chambers, the National assembly has the final say, except for constitutional laws (amendments to the constitution & "lois organiques"). Numerous attempts have been made throughout history to ban football games, particularly the most rowdy and disruptive forms. The Assembly has the power to dismiss the cabinet, and thus the majority in the Assembly determines the choice of government.

Calcio is still played, mostly as a tourist attraction. The National Assembly deputies represent local constituencies and are directly elected for 5-year terms. The game was not played between January 1739 and May 1930, when it was revived to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the match mentioned above. The French parliament is a bicameral legislature comprising a National Assembly (Assemblée Nationale) and a Senate. This is sometimes credited as the earliest known published rules of any football game. The president names the prime minister, presides over the cabinet, commands the armed forces, and concludes treaties. In 1580, Count Giovanni de' Bardi di Vernio wrote Discorso sopra 'l giuoco del Calcio Fiorentino. Presidential arbitration assures regular functioning of the public powers and the continuity of the state.

While the troops of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor were besieging Florence, a game of calcio was organised as a show of defiance. Under the constitution, the President of the French Republic is elected directly by universal adult suffrage for a 5-year (originally 7-year) term. The most famous match took place on February 17, 1530. It greatly strengthened the authority of the executive in relation to Parliament. The game is said to have originated as a military training exercise. The constitution of the Fifth Republic was approved by referendum on September 28, 1958. Blows below the belt were allowed. However the French electorate voted against ratification of the European Constitutional Treaty in May 2005.

For example, calcio players could punch, shoulder charge, and kick opponents. France has been at the forefront of European states seeking to exploit the momentum of monetary union to create a more unified and capable European political, defence and security apparatus. The young aristocrats of the city would dress up in fine silk costumes and embroil themselves in a violent form of football. In recent decades, France's reconciliation and cooperation with Germany have proved central to the political and economic integration of Europe, including the introduction of the Euro in January 1999. In the 16th century, the city of Florence celebrated the period between Epiphany and Lent by playing a game known as "o Calcio storico" ("kickball in costume") in the Piazza della Novere or the Piazza Santa Croce. The Fourth Republic was established after World War II, to be replaced in 1958 by the current semi-presidential Fifth Republic established under General Charles de Gaulle. (The earliest recorded football match in Ireland was one between Louth and Meath, at Slane, in 1712.). France's ultimate victory in World War I and World War II after initially being invaded and partly occupied by German forces did not prevent the loss of the empire, the comparative economic status, population and status as a dominant nation state.

The first reference to football in Ireland occurs in the Statute of Galway of 1527, which allowed the playing of football and archery but banned "hokie' — the hurling of a little ball with sticks or staves" as well as other sports. Louis-Napoléon was unseated following the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 to be replaced by the Third Republic. However, the first clear reference to a ball being used did not occur until 1486.[3]. The short-lived Second Republic ended in 1852 when Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte proclaimed the Second French Empire. In 1424, King James I of Scotland also attempted to ban the playing of "fute-ball". In 1830, a civil uprising established the constitutional July Monarchy followed by the Second Republic in 1848. The first clear reference to football was not recorded until 1409, when King Henry IV of England issued an edict to ban it. Following Napoleon's defeat in 1815, the French monarchy was re-established.

This reinforces the idea that the games played at the time did not necessarily involve a ball being kicked. In the course of several wars, his armies conquered many countries, with members of the Bonaparte family being appointed as monarchs of newly established kingdoms. Most of the early references to the game speak simply of "ball play" or "playing at ball". Napoleon Bonaparte seized control of the Republic in 1799, making himself First Consul, and later Emperor of what is now known as the First French Empire (1804-1814). He described the activities of London youths during the annual festival of Shrove Tuesday. The monarchy ruled France until 1792, when the French Revolution established the First Republic. 1174-1183). At this time France had a tremendous influence over the European politics, economy and culture as well as possessing the largest population in Europe (see Demographics of France).

The first description of football in England was given by William FitzStephen (c. The monarchy reached its height during the 17th century and the reign of Louis XIV. Shrovetide games survive in a number of English towns (see below). His descendants, the Capetian, Valois and Bourbon dynasties progressively unified the country through a series of wars and dynastic inheritance. A legend that these games in England evolved from a more ancient and bloody ritual of kicking the "Dane's head" is unlikely to be true. Charlemagne's descendants ruled France until 987, when Hugh Capet, Duke of France and Count of Paris, was crowned King of France. These archaic forms of football would be played between neighbouring towns and villages, involving an unlimited number of players on opposing teams, who would clash in a heaving mass of people struggling to drag an inflated pig's bladder by any means possible to markers at each end of a town. The western part approximated to much of modern France.

Reports of a game played in Brittany, Normandy and Picardy, known as Choule or Soule, suggest that some of these football games could have arrived in England as a result of the Norman Conquest. Existence as a separate entity began in 843, with the division of Charlemagne's Carolingian empire into eastern, central and western parts. The game played in England at this time may have arrived with the Roman occupation, but there is little evidence to indicate this. The modern name "France" derives from the name of the feudal domain of the Capetian Kings of France around Paris. The Middle Ages saw a huge rise in popularity of annual Shrovetide football matches throughout Europe, particularly in England. In the fourth century CE, Gaul's eastern frontier along the Rhine was overrun by Germanic tribes, principally the Franks, from whom the ancient name of "Francie" was derived. However, the route towards the development of modern football games appears to lie in Western Europe and particularly England. Christianity also took root in the second and third centuries CE.

These games and others may well stretch far back into antiquity and have influenced football over the centuries. Gaul was conquered by the Romans in the first century BCE, and the Gauls eventually adopted Roman speech and culture. The ancient Aztec game of ollamalitzli also involved kicking a ball, but it generally had more similarities to basketball. The borders of modern France are roughly the same as those of ancient Gaul, which was inhabited by Celtic Gauls. Each match began with two teams facing each other in parallel lines, before attempting to kick the ball through each other team's line and then at a goal. Due to its overseas departments and territories scattered on all oceans of the planet, France possesses the second-largest Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the world, covering 11,035,000 km² (4,260,000 mi²), just behind the EEZ of the United States (11,351,000 km² / 4,383,000 mi²), but ahead of the EEZ of Australia (8,232,000 km² / 3,178,000 mi²).^[3] The EEZ of France covers approximately 8% of the total surface of all the EEZs of the world, whereas the land area of the French Republic is only 0.45% of the total land area on Earth. In northern Canada and/or Alaska, the Inuit (Eskimos) played a game on ice called Aqsaqtuk. France also has extensive river systems such as the Loire, the Rhône, the Garonne and the Seine.

An 1878 book by Robert Brough-Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria, quotes a man called Richard Thomas as saying, in about 1841, that he had witnessed Aboriginal people playing the game: "Mr Thomas describes how the foremost player will drop kick a ball made from the skin of a possum and how other players leap into the air in order to catch it." It is widely believed that Marn Grook had an influence on the development of Australian Rules Football (see below). There are several other elevated regions such as the Massif Central, the Jura, the Vosges, and the Ardennes which are quite rocky and forested. In Victoria, Australia, Indigenous Australians played a game called Marn Grook. The French Alps contain the highest point in western Europe, Mont Blanc at 4810 m. For example, William Strachey of the Jamestown settlement is the first to record a game played by the Native Americans called Pahsaheman, in 1610. Metropolitan France possesses a wide variety of landscapes, from coastal plains in the north and west to mountain ranges in the south-east (the Alps) and the south-west (the Pyrenees). There are a number of less well-documented references to prehistoric, ancient or traditional ball games, played by indigenous peoples all around the world. These territories have varying forms of government ranging from overseas département to "overseas country".

The game appears to have vaguely resembled rugby. While the main territory of France (metropolitan France; French: la Métropole, or France métropolitaine) is located in Western Europe, France is also constituted from a number of territories in North America, the Caribbean, South America, the southern Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and Antarctica (sovereignty claims in Antarctica are governed by the Antarctic Treaty System). The Roman game of Harpastu is believed to have been adapted from a team game known as "επισκυρος" (episkyros) or pheninda that is mentioned by Greek playwright, Antiphanes (388-311BC) and later referred to by Clement of Alexandria. . The Roman writer Cicero describes the case of a man who was killed whilst having a shave when a ball was kicked into a barbers shop. More precisely, the region around Paris, called Île-de-France, was the original French royal demesne. The Greeks and Romans are known to have played many ball games some of which involved the use of the feet. The name France originates from the Franks, a Germanic tribe that occupied the region after the fall of the Roman Empire.

In 1903 in a bid to restore ancient traditions the game was revived and it can now be seen played for the benefit of tourists at a number of festivals. It is one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council wielding veto power, and it is also one of only eight acknowledged nuclear powers. The game survived through many years but appears to have died out sometime before the mid 19th century. France is also a founding member of the United Nations. In kemari several individuals stand in a circle and kick a ball to each other, trying not to let the ball drop to the ground (much like keepie uppie). France is one of the founding members of the European Union, and has the largest land area of all members. This is known to have been played within the Japanese imperial court in Kyoto from about 600AD. It is a highly developed country with the fifth-largest economy in the world in 2004.^[2] Its main ideals are expressed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.

Another Asian ball-kicking game, which may have been influenced by tsu chu, is kemari. The French Republic is a democracy organised as a unitary semi-presidential republic. It was not a game as such but more of a spectacle for the amusement of the Emperor and it may have been performed as long as 3000 years ago. France is also linked to the United Kingdom via the Channel Tunnel, which passes underneath the English Channel. It describes a practice known as tsu chu (Traditional Chinese:蹴鞠 or 蹴踘 ; Pinyin: cù jū) which involved kicking a leather ball through a hole in a piece of silk cloth strung between two 30 foot poles. In some of its overseas parts, France also shares land borders with Brazil, Suriname, and the Netherlands Antilles. Documented evidence of what is possibly the oldest organized activity resembling football can be found in a Chinese military manual written during the Han Dynasty in about 2nd century BC. France is bordered by Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Monaco, Andorra, and Spain.

Football-like games predate recorded history in all parts of the world, though the earliest forms of football are not known. French people often refer to Metropolitan France as l'Hexagone (the "Hexagon") because of its geographical shape. Throughout the history of mankind the urge to kick at stones and other such objects is thought to have led to many early activities involving kicking and/or running with a ball. ^[1] Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and North Sea, and from the Rhine River to the Atlantic Ocean. . France (pronounced /fʀɑ̃s/ in French), officially the French Republic (French: République française, pronounced /ʀepyblik fʀɑ̃sɛz/), is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in Western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents.
. France also uses .eu, shared with other members of the European Union..

In all football games, the winning team is the one that has the most points or goals when a specified length of time has elapsed. or 247 acres) as well as the estuaries of rivers
⁶ Whole of the French Republic except the overseas territories in the Pacific Ocean
⁷ French overseas territories in the Pacific Ocean only
⁸ In addition to .fr, several other Internet TLDs are used in French overseas départements and territories: .re, .mq, .gp, .tf, .nc, .pf, .wf, .pm, and .yt. The object of all football games is to advance the ball by kicking, running with, or passing and catching, either to the opponent's end of the field where points or goals can be scored by, depending on the game, putting the ball across the goal line between posts and under a crossbar, putting the ball between upright posts (and possibly over a crossbar), or advancing the ball across the opponent's goal line while maintaining possession of the ball. mi. Many of the modern games have their origins in England, but many peoples around the world have played games which involved kicking and/or carrying a ball since ancient times. European) France only
⁴ French National Geographic Institute data
⁵ French Land Register data, which exclude lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km² (0.386 sq. All football games involve scoring points with a spherical or ellipsoidal ball (itself called a football), by moving the ball into, onto, or over a goal area or line defended by the opposing team. ¹ See Languages section for regional languages
² Whole territory of the French Republic, including all the overseas departments and territories, but excluding the French territory of Terre Adélie in Antarctica where sovereignty is suspended since the signing of the Antarctic Treaty in 1959
³ Metropolitan (i.e.