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Comparison of association football and rugby union


Comparison of association football (football/soccer) and rugby union (rugby/rugger) is possible because of the games' similarities and shared origins.

Rugby union has a number of set pieces, such as line-outs, scrums and rucks that do not have direct equivalents in association football. Association football aims at a more open kind of play, and there is not the same differentiation between forwards and backs. Another major difference is that rugby union, unlike association football, has no goal keeper.

The earliest forms of football comprise the common ancestry of both association football and of rugby union. Two of the earliest recorded football type games from Europe include Episkyros from Ancient Greece and the Roman version Harpastum, which similar to pre-codified "Mob Football" involved more handling the ball than kicking. Other competitive games revolving around the kicking of a ball have been played in a few countries throughout history, such as cuju in China.

The rules of association football were codified in England by the Football Association in 1863 and the name association football was coined to distinguish the game from the other forms of football played at the time, specifically rugby football. The term soccer originated in England, first appearing in the 1880s as an Oxford "-er" abbreviation of the word "association".

Within the English-speaking world, association football is now usually called football in the United Kingdom, and mainly soccer in Canada and the United States. Other countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, may use either or both terms.

Most of the interplay between the two codes occurred in the nineteenth century, where the "Associationists" preferred a kicking game, and the "Rugbeians" preferred a handling/carrying game. The term "soccer" was formed by analogy to "rugger", a nickname for rugby football.

One of the early differences between the two codes, beyond playing style, was that of amateurism and professionalism. While rugby union football remained resolutely amateur until the 1990s (resulting in the split with rugby league), association football became professional very early on.


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