History of Soccer

As you probably know, soccer is the most played, watched and televised sport in the narration of mankind. According to FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) there are currently 270 million people that are actively involved in the amusement of football. (That is about 4% of the world population) So why has this sport shift such a grand interest for me and common people alike? What is the anecdote behind this widely spectated event?

Soccer which is referred as "football association" in Wikipedia is a sport that has roots dating back to the 2nd and 3rd century. The earliest form is said to enjoy originated in China; a game called "cuju". FIFA, the governing object of football, officially stated that China was the birthplace of its game in 2004.

In the latter decades, many other forms of the sport have been spotted in other regions of the world, such as "Harpastum" (Roman), "Kemari" (Japan), and "Knattleikr". (Iceland) These games were of course a piece deviating from what modern football is all about. It was not until the 19th century that several forms of football became somewhat an organized coincidence played mostly by prestigious universal schools in England. There was much improvement in the method of the sport when Thomas Arnold (head of the 'Rugby School' helped to father the first standardized rules of Rugby.

In Rugby, they allowed players to kick opponents legs below the knees (which was banned in the closest years), handling the ball was also permitted. Consequent this development, football and rugby split on December, 1863. The voguish game of football was born in England with the formation of the F.A. (Football Association) which is the governing body of football in England. Ebenezer Cobb Morley was a founding member of the Football Business in which he stressed out the importance of a governing entity for football. After the F.A. was established he laid down the "Laws of football" that implemented the rules the pastime is played today. On January 9th, 1864, the first exhibition football entertainment was played at the Battersea Park. In single eight years, the F.A. had 50 member clubs and grew rapidly allowing a competition to emerge in 1972. The F.A. Cup is the first football competition and in Great britain regarded as the most prestigious one. The 'Wanderers' were the first side to slam the cup, beating the 'Royal Engineers' 1-0.

Football popularized slowly in other countries with the help of British influence. It was not until 1889, other countries (Netherlands and Denmark) would embrace this awesome game. Football started growing rapidly with the following countries; New Zealand (1891), Argentina (1893), Chile, Switzerland, Belgium (1895), Italy (1898), Germany, Uruguay (1900), and Hungary (1901) adopting football associations of their own.

In 1904, FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) was formed in Paris to regulate international fixtures and there were seven founding members (France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland). The early international football competition was introduced at the 1908 London Summer Olympics with Ample Britain winning gold, Denmark silver and the Netherlands bronze. The emergence of World War I (1914-1918) and Macrocosm Warfare II (1939-1945) brought the growing sport to a halt resuming years after the war. By 1950, FIFA had 51 member countries. Before the creation of the Existence Mug (the most prestigious football competition), FIFA organised a football competition within the Summer Olympics. In 1930, FIFA would guide their own tournament in Uruguay; the host nation to be the elementary football team to have won the cup that would be the most spectated than any other finished tournament today.

Football today, is a still growing sport with 208 civic teams recognized by FIFA, in appendix there are thousands of club teams competing with each other in various leagues and cups for global dominance. The sport has become an addiction for alive with body politic around the world, helping nations and heads get well-adjusted as they cheer their foursome away hoping one day, their squad testament bring house a trophy. The imminent of football always has room for improvement and hopefully will branch out affection in the U.S. as elsewhere. "Fair-play" is the name of the game.

Selim Oz writes on sports,marketing and business related issues. You can learn and about soccer by visiting my blog, Soccer - http://soccereuro2008.blogspot.com/

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