Football Fives

Futsal 5-a-side Football played Indoors on an Olympic Handball Court. There are out-of-bounds and the ball is kicked back into play. Invented in Uruguay, South America.

Indoor Soccer Played in Community Centres – the ball can bounce back off the walls into play.

Astro Leagues Played on Artificial Turf – Astroturf. There are usually a complex of them together. Similar to Futsal and Indoor Soccer except there are out-of-bounds and the ball is thrown back into play.

College Super Leagues Intra-Mural Soccer Leagues within each of Ireland’s Universities – usually Futsal Leagues.

7-a-side Football Played on Grass – usually played as a Mini-World Cup during the offseason in Soccer Clubs.

Mini-Football 6-aide version of Astro Soccer. The ball is kicked back into play.

Street Soccer Played on the streets – the World HQ of Street Soccer is in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Powerchair Football Played in Motorized Wheelchairs (Powerchairs) in Community Centres.

World Futbol

Footbag Keepie-Uppie version of Football inspired by Ancient Asian Football games

Traditional Asian Football Kemari (Japan), Cuju (China), Marn Grook (Australian Aboriginal)

Calcio Storico Fiorentino Renaissance Mob Football from Tuscany, Italy.

Medieval British Football Medieval Mob Football from Britain

Lelo Burti Ancient Mob Football from Georgia.

Chandimu Street Soccer from Tanzania.

Futsal

Futsal is the South American version of Football and was invented in 1930s Uruguay by a teacher. It is played on the same indoor court as an Olympic Handball court, with lines delineating the out-of-bounds rather than walls as in Indoor Football. Players must pass the ball into a semi-circle surrounding the opposing teams goal before being allowed to shoot. Similar games include Arena Soccer (big in USA and Canada, where there were professional Leagues before the MLS), Indoor Football, Football Fives, Street Soccer, Beach Soccer, and Powerchair Football.

Below you will find the Results and Tables of various competitions in Ireland.

College Super Leagues

College Super Leagues are University Intramural Competitions, usually played during semester as either Futsal or Football Fives Leagues between teams of friends and college faculties.

College Super Leagues

Indoor Soccer

Indoor Soccer is the version of 5-a-side Football played in Community Centres and School Halls.

Arena Soccer (North America)

Arena Soccer was codified in Canada and is played on convderted Ice Hockey rinks. There is no out-of-bounds and the ball may bounce off the wall back into play. Futsal (Futbol de Salon – literally Indoor Football) was codified in Uruguay in 1930 and is played on the same court as Olympic (Team) Handball. There are out-of-bounds lines as in standard 11-a-side Soccer but in the case of Futsal the ball must be kicked back into play rather than thrown. In both Arena Soccer and Futsal the attacking team must pass the ball into a semi-circle surrounding the defending team’s goal before they are allowed to shoot. Goals are the smaller Ice Hockey and Olympic Handball goals respectively

Football 5s and 7s

There are Football 5s and 7s leagues in most counties in Ireland, with the year usually divided into four seasons. The matches are usually played at dedicated complexes, where there could be as many as a dozen pitches.

In addition the Neymar Jr Football Fives World Cup features regional tournaments in countries throughout the World, followed by National Tournaments with the winner representing their country in the World Cup, held over a week in a holiday location each year.

Below you will find links to various leagues & competitions in Football Fives and Sevens:

7-a-side Football

The Eirball, Irish North American & World Football (Soccer) Archive’s landing (index) page to the All-Time Results and Standings of 7-a-side Outdoor Soccer. 7-a-side Football is popular among Soccer Clubs running “World Cup” style Tournaments over the Summer such as Arklow Town Sevens in Co. Wicklow and Killarney Athletic’s 7-a-side Tournament in Co. Kerry.

Street Soccer

Street Soccer is the version of 5-a-side Football played on Streets.

Powerchair Football

Powerchair Football is 5-a-side Soccer played using motorised Wheelchairs (Powerchairs).

World Football on Eirball includes Football varieties played in East Asia, Aboriginal Australia, Africa and Old Europe.

Calcio Storico Fiorentino

This is the Eirball – World / Irish North American and World Sports Archive landing page for Calcio Storico Fiorentino, one of the earliest forms of organised football in the world, and which bears a striking resemblance in play to Gaelic Football, as well as a shared Atlantic heritage in a pre-Roman/pre-English, pre-Catholic Rennaisance or Revival. To view results of Calcio Fiorentino just click on the links in red/blue (purple) below the introduction.

This is the GAA World (Eirball) Landing page for the All-Time Results of Calcio Fiorentino.

Header Picture Credit: [1] MONACO – CIRCA 1963: A stamp printed by MONACO shows an illustration of the Calcio Fiorentino field and starting positions from a 1688 book by Pietro di Lorenzo Bini, Florence, circa 1963 By Sergey Goryachev / www.shutterstock.com

Calcio Storico Fiorentino is a Renaissance Football game first played in Florence (Fiorentina), Tuscany in the 1400s by workers on breaks from work in the city. It was the first organised football in the world, rather than the Medieval mob football which preceeded it and where there were no rules or restrictions on numbers playing. It could be seen as part of the wider Renaissance whereby Tuscany’s ancient pre-Roman, pre-Catholic past was brought back.

The earliest orgainsed Football matches anywhere in the world, as far as Eirball has discovered, although earlier reports in Ancient Europe, Greece, Rome, Italy and China mention similar games, though of what nature is hard to discern – they may just have been children’s catching games. [See articles on Medieval Football at: Medieval Celtic Sports for more information and references on this]

*The Tuscan language (Etruscan) is one which predates the Latin arrival in the Italian peninsula, and even though the letters and sounds are known there is no knowledge of the word meanings as no document translating Etruscan to Latin or Greek has ever been found. It does, however, sound similar to Basque, and therefore could be incuded in the Celtic sports section as part of the “Atlantic” or “Black Atlantic” family along with the Celtic languages, Basque and Berber (Tamashek) – half the words in the Gaelic language are of an Indo-European origin (Greek, Latin, Germanic, Slavic etc)and half of a North African Afro-Asiatic origin (Berber, Tuareg, Maltese, Hebrew, Arab etc).

[References: [4] Calcio Storico Fiorentino Sito Ufficiale (2020) CALCIO STORICO FIORENTINO [Internet] Available from: http://calciostoricofiorentino.it/?q=calcio-storico-fiorentino [Accessed 4 August 2020] and [5] Calcio Storico Fiorentino Sito Ufficiale (2020) Studies & Documentation [Internet] Available from: http://www.calciostoricofiorentino.it/?q=studi_e_documentazione [Accessed 4 August 2020]

Medieval British Football

According to later legend Celtic Britons played the Romans at a game of Football in Derbyshire on Shrove Tuesday AD 217 after a battle. These games of Football had no formal rules, or numbers per side and are also known as Medieval or Mob Football with the objective usually to get the ball back to a base at either your own teams end or the opposing teams. Variations on the theme include Uppies & Downies (those living up the hill versus those living down the hill) and Town versus Country. These sports are also known in Continental Europe. In Britain these days they are mainly played in the Celtic fringes of England and Scotland: Cornish Hurling in Cornwall, Manx Cammag in the Isle of Man, Orkney Ba Game in the Orkney Islands, Shaking the Hales in Northumberland, Uppies & Downies in Cumbria, and the Shrovetide Game in Derbyshire. Other games include Eton Fives, a version of Handball first played in the Middle Ages by Peasants against the Church Walls at Eton College, with a handrail providing an obstacle down one side.

Lelo Burti (Georgia)

Lelo Burti is the traditional Georgian form of Rugby.

Traditional Asian and Australian Football

World Football on Eirball includes Football varieties played in East Asia, Aboriginal Australia, Africa and Old Europe. Asian and Aboriginal Australian versions of Football such as Kemari (Japan), Cuju (China) and Marn Grook (Australia) are the ancestors of the modern sport of Footbag.

Kemari (Japan)

Kemari is an ancient Keepie-Uppie Version of Football from Japan.

Cuju (China)

Cuju is an ancient Keepie-Uppie Version of Football from China.

Marn Grook (Australian Aboriginal)

Marn Grook is an Australian Aboriginal Football game.

Chandimu (Tanzania)

Chandimu orginated in Tanzania and is a variation on Street Soccer.

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