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Canadian football ((フランス語:Football canadien)) is a form of gridiron football played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide〔Table of exact conversions 〕 attempting to advance a pointed prolate spheroid ball into the opposing team's scoring area (end zone). In Canada, the term "football" may refer to Canadian football and American football collectively, or to either sport specifically, depending on context. The two sports have shared origins and are closely related but have significant differences. In particular, Canadian football has 12 players on the field per team rather than 11; the field is roughly 10 yards wider, and 10 yards longer between end-zones that are themselves 10 yards deeper; and a team has only three downs to gain 10 yards, which results in less offensive rushing than in the American game. In the Canadian game all players on the defending team, when a down begins, must be at least 1 yard from the line of scrimmage. (The American game has a similar "neutral zone" but it is only the width of the football.) Rugby football in Canada originated in the early 1860s,〔 and over time, the game known as Canadian football developed. Both the Canadian Football League (CFL), the sport's top professional league, and Football Canada, the governing body for amateur play, trace their roots to 1880 and the founding of the Canadian Rugby Football Union. Active teams such as the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats have similar longevity. The CFL is the most popular and only major professional Canadian football league. Its championship game, the Grey Cup, is one of Canada's largest sporting events, attracting a broad television audience, though it has been shrinking in recent years. In 2009, about 40% of Canada's population watched part of the game; in 2014, it was closer to 33%, peaking at 5.1 million viewers in the fourth quarter.〔 Chris Zelkovich, (The Great Canadian ratings report: Drop in Grey Cup audience follows CFL's downward trend ), Yahoo Sports, 2 December 2014 〕 Canadian football is also played at the high school, junior, collegiate, and semi-professional levels: the Canadian Junior Football League, formed May 8, 1974, and Quebec Junior Football League are leagues for players aged 18–22, many post-secondary institutions compete in Canadian Interuniversity Sport for the Vanier Cup, and senior leagues such as the Alberta Football League have grown in popularity in recent years. Great achievements in Canadian football are enshrined in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. Other organizations across Canada perform senior league Canadian football during the summer. ==History== The first documented football match was a practice game played on November 9, 1861, at University College, University of Toronto (approximately west of Queen's Park). One of the participants in the game involving University of Toronto students was Sir William Mulock, later Chancellor of the school. A football club was formed at the university soon afterward, although its rules of play at this stage are unclear. The first written account of a game played was on October 15, 1862, on the Montreal Cricket Grounds. It was between the First Battalion Grenadier Guards and the Second Battalion Scots Fusilier Guards resulting in a win by the Grenadier Guards 3 goals, 2 rouges to nothing. In 1864, at Trinity College, Toronto, F. Barlow Cumberland, Frederick A. Bethune, and Christopher Gwynn, one of the founders of Milton, Massachusetts, devised rules based on rugby football.〔 The game gradually gained a following, with the Hamilton Football Club formed on November 3, 1869, (the oldest football club in Canada). Montreal formed a team April 8, 1872, Toronto was formed on October 4, 1873, and the Ottawa FBC on September 20, 1876. This rugby-football soon became popular at Montreal's McGill University. McGill challenged Harvard University to a game, in 1874 using a hybrid game of English rugby devised by the University of McGill.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=History - CFL.ca - Official Site of the Canadian Football League )〕 The first attempt to establish a proper governing body and adopted the current set of Rugby rules was the Foot Ball Association of Canada, organized on March 24, 1873 followed by the Canadian Rugby Football Union (CRFU) founded June 12, 1880,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=History - CFL.ca - Official Site of the Canadian Football League )〕 which included teams from Ontario and Quebec. Later both the Ontario and Quebec Rugby Football Union (ORFU and QRFU) were formed (January 1883), and then the Interprovincial (1907) and Western Interprovincial Football Union (1936) (IRFU and WIFU).〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Canadian Football League (CFL) )〕 The CRFU reorganized into an umbrella organization forming the Canadian Rugby Union (CRU) in 1891.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=History - CFL.ca - Official Site of the Canadian Football League )〕 The original forerunners to the current Canadian Football League, was established in 1956 when the IRFU and WIFU formed an umbrella organization, The Canadian Football Council (CFC).〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=History - CFL.ca - Official Site of the Canadian Football League )〕 And then in 1958 the CFC left The CRFU to become The CFL. The Burnside rules closely resembling American Football that were incorporated in 1903 by The ORFU, was an effort to distinguish it from a more rugby-oriented game. The Burnside Rules had teams reduced to 12 men per side, introduced the Snap-Back system, required the offensive team to gain 10 yards on three downs, eliminated the Throw-In from the sidelines, allowed only six men on the line, stated that all goals by kicking were to be worth two points and the opposition was to line up 10 yards from the defenders on all kicks. The rules were an attempt to standardize the rules throughout the country. The CIRFU, QRFU and CRU refused to adopt the new rules at first.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=History - CFL.ca - Official Site of the Canadian Football League )〕 Forward passes were not allowed in the Canadian game until 1929, and touchdowns, which had been five points, were increased to six points in 1956, in both cases several decades after the Americans had adopted the same changes. The primary differences between the Canadian and American games stem from rule changes that the American side of the border adopted but the Canadian side did not (originally, both sides had three downs, goal posts on the goal lines and unlimited forward motion, but the American side modified these rules and the Canadians did not). The Canadian field width was one rule that was ''not'' based on American rules, as the Canadian game played in wider fields and stadiums that were not as narrow as the American stadiums. The Grey Cup was established in 1909 after being donated by Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey, The Governor General of Canada as the championship of teams under the CRU for the Rugby Football Championship of Canada.〔 Initially an amateur competition, it eventually became dominated by professional teams in the 1940s and early 1950s. The Ontario Rugby Football Union, the last amateur organization to compete for the trophy, withdrew from competition in 1954. The move ushered in the modern era of Canadian professional football. Canadian football has mostly been confined to Canada, with the United States being the only other country to have hosted a high-level Canadian football game. The CFL's controversial "South Division" as it would come to be officially known attempted to put CFL teams in the United States playing under Canadian rules between 1992 and 1995. The move was aborted after three years; the Baltimore Stallions were the most successful of the numerous Americans teams to play in the CFL, winning the 83rd Grey Cup. Continuing financial losses, a lack of proper Canadian football venues, a pervasive belief that the American teams were simply pawns to provide the struggling Canadian teams with expansion fee revenue, and the return of the NFL to Baltimore prompted the end of Canadian football on the American side of the border. In 2013, Newfoundland and Labrador became the last province to establish football at the minor league level with teams playing on the Avalon Peninsula and in Labrador City. The province however has yet to host a college or CFL game. Prince Edward Island, the smallest of the provinces, has also never hosted a CFL game. File:Ottawa and Hamilton Tigers football game 5.jpg|A game between the Hamilton Tigers and the Ottawa Rough Riders, 1910 File:Football game between the 4th Canadian Armoured Division Atoms and the 1st Canadian Army Red and Blue Bombers.jpg|A game between the 4th Canadian Armoured Division Atoms and 1st Canadian Army Red and Blue Bombers, in Utrecht, Netherlands, October 1945 File:Statue touchdown cfhof.jpg|''Touchdown'' monument outside the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in Hamilton, Ontario ==League play== Canadian football is played at several levels in Canada; the top league is the professional nine-team Canadian Football League (CFL). The CFL regular season begins in June, and playoffs for the Grey Cup are completed by mid-November. In cities with outdoor stadiums such as Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Regina, low temperatures and icy field conditions can seriously affect the outcome of a game. Amateur football is governed by Football Canada. At the university level, 26 teams play in four conferences under the auspices of Canadian Interuniversity Sport; the CIS champion is awarded the Vanier Cup. Junior football is played by many after high school before joining the university ranks. There are 20 junior teams in three divisions in the Canadian Junior Football League competing for the Canadian Bowl. The Quebec Junior Football League includes teams from Ontario and Quebec who battle for the Manson Cup. Semi-professional leagues have grown in popularity in recent years, with the Alberta Football League becoming especially popular. The Northern Football Conference formed in Ontario in 1954 has also surged in popularity for former college players who do not continue to professional football. The Ontario champion plays against the Alberta champion for the "National Championship". The Canadian Major Football League is the governing body for the semi-professional game. Women's football is starting to gain attention in Canada. The first Canadian women's league to begin operations was the Maritime Women's Football League in 2004. The largest women's league is the Western Women's Canadian Football League. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Canadian football」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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