Forms of soccer have been played for thousand of years by various civilizations. As far back as 2500 B.C.E., the Chinese played a form of the game and called it Tsu Chu. The natives of the Pacific Islands played the game using their hands and feet , and they used coconuts and pig bladders as balls. The Inuits of northern Canada played soccer on ice and used balls filled with caribou hair and grass. Other Native Americans played on fields that had enough apace for 1,000 played to be playing at the same time , and matches usually lasted for more than one day. The game were so rough that the players often got broken bones. In Mexico and Central America, people invented the rubber ball and player in courts 40 to 50 feet (12 to 15 meters) long surrounded by walls several feet hight. In the middle of each wall , there was a stone with a hole in the middle of a wooden ring , and the idea was for players to hit the hard rubber ball through the hole or ring. But it was not until 1863 in England that the first set of rules was put together to make soccer the game it is today. Soccer was spread throughout the world by British sailors and settlers , and all major innovation in the game such as leagues , professionalism , and international matches originated in England.