Sport in the Cook Islands similar to the sport of Samoan cricket or kirikiti). Most villages have teams and they compete in a league, following the end of the soccer season. It is popular among the older generation. Women's netball is a very popular sport in the Cook Islands, and the country has one of the world's top 10 teams, which competed in the 2007 Netball World Cup. Sport in the Cook Islands Rugby league is the most popular sport in the Cook Islands, with soccer and rugby union as the next most popular/played sports. In September 2009, the country hosted the 2009 Pacific Mini
Goal kick is found in the first version of the Sheffield rules (1858). The original FA rules of 1863 defined the "free kick from the goal line", the ancestor of the goal-kick, thus: There are several differences between this "free kick from the goal line" and the modern goal-kick: It was not possible for a player to be offside from such a kick, a feature of the laws that has remained constant to the present day. In 1866, the law was changed to award a goal-kick to the defending team regardless of which team touched the ball. (If the attacking team touched