While it is often claimed that Touch started in Australia in 1963 as a social or "park" game and as a training technique for rugby league, at least as early as 1956, supervised "touch and pass" was already being played at several inner city schools in the North of England, where asphalt playgrounds made normal rugby league too dangerous.
[3][4][1] The current rules are based on the 8th Edition published by the Australian governing body, Touch Football Australia, in 2020.
The rules include a section of touch-specific terms and phrases, many of which are shared with rugby league (e.g. offside, intercept, try).
Players normally wear soft rubber cleated shoes, similar to those used in other grass sports such as cricket and field hockey.
The ball can be passed or knocked (but not kicked) sideways or backwards between teammates (known as Attackers), who attempt to evade opposition players (known as Defenders) to score a Try.
The standard match duration is 40 minutes (two x 20-minute halves) with a 5-minute halftime, though other time frames are often used to suit local conditions and competitions.
Unions having jurisdiction over their developmental processes, matches, competitions and festivals may need to vary these Laws as deemed appropriate.
[8] FIT conducted the first Youth Touch World Cup in Auckland, New Zealand in January 2001, followed by the second event on the Sunshine Coast, Australia in 2005.
The fourth Youth Touch World Cup was scheduled to be held in Manchester, England in 2021, but was rescheduled to 2023 as a result of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.
[12] Tests are divided into separate events for each age category, being: Touch has been played at the Pacific Games since 2003.
[13] It is an optional sport for the Pacific Games program[14] and the tournaments include men's, women's and mixed competitions.
The sixth and most recent Euros were played in Nottingham from 2-6 August 2022, with 62 teams from 17 countries contesting 10 divisions, including men's 50s for the first time.
Thirteen permits, representing all parts of Australia, compete in open-age, under-20 and over-age (Masters) divisions in men's, women's and mixed categories.
The permits were originally designed to equalise competition between the traditionally strong Touch states of Queensland and NSW, and the remainder of the country.
Touch Football Australia (TFA) and the National Rugby League (NRL) signed a memorandum of understanding in August 2013, bringing the two entities together to form a partnership to develop the sport across both codes.
The agreement recognised the similarities between both Touch and Rugby league and that the significant benefits to both through a dual-track pathway.
[20] The agreement resulted in the creation of a unified "NRL Touch Football" brand in Australia, which resulted in a major profile and funding boost for the sport within the country, including the signing of a commercial partnership agreement between the two entities and the principle "whole of game sponsor", initially Harvey Norman and later Doordash.
[22] The ETA oversees both elite and development National Touch Series events in the summer for single-gender and mixed teams.
In addition, the annual Touch Nationals provides competition for representative regional sides in open, juniors, seniors and masters divisions.
In the very same category, France Men's Over 30s won a bronze medal in Putrajaya, Malaysia in the 9th Touch Football World Cup.
In 2005, the official national governing body Touch Deutschland Sportverein (TDSV) was founded, which is a full member of the FIT and has sent teams to the European Cup and World Championships.
Clubs now exist in Berlin, Bonn, Frankfurt, Freiburg, Gießen, Hamburg, Heidelberg, Cologne (Köln), Leipzig, Munich, Osnabrück, Paderborn and Rüthen.
Matt took the Asian Club Championships, held in KL in June 2013, by storm and dominated the opposition with his pace and shrewd passing abilities.
The Panthers were the best placed Malaysian team at the Asian Club Championship and were the Men's Masters runners up.
In 2005, the Scottish Touch Association (STA) was formally constituted as the governing body to help develop the sport.
By 2007 the association had welcomed new participants from Dundee, Perth and Stirling to join existing leagues, held its first formal national championships, trained over 150 referees and won the tender to host the 2011 World Cup in Edinburgh.
Established in 2017, Touch Singapore hosts two league competitions every year with over 95 teams entering across 12 category divisions.
TSG also host the Singapore International Touch Knockout tournament which see clubs from all over Asia competing over a two-day competition.
As of 2020, there are TS-affiliated clubs in Baden, Bagnes, Basel, Bern, Egg, Geneva, Lausanne, Lucerne, Zug and Zurich.
[27] There are touch communities in Fort Lauderdale, Floria, Orlando, Floria, West Palm Beach, Florida, Portland, Oregon, Phoenix, Arizona, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., New York City, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, San Diego, Boston, and Sandy, Utah.