The glorious game of Football
Football is a fun game. There goes an old maxim by Dan Birdwell that says that one has to play this game like somebody just hit one’s mother with a two-by-four. And surely after reading this interesting maxim my readers will find the game pretty interesting
next time they play this beautiful game. Football is a game that has a very interesting history. Well I am not going to bore my readers with all the monotonous details about the football history. But I believe that the world should know how a game that initially
evolved as a noble pursuit became one of the most lucrative professions of the world?
The game of football/ soccer was started in different part of the world long before we were born. Football / soccer game can be found in every corner of geography and history. Long before our era, the Chinese and the Japanese used to play a ball game that
was quite similar to the game of football as we see it today. It is quite interesting to note that the Ancient Greeks and the Romans used the game of football to sharpen warriors for battle. “Tlatchi” was yet another game similar to football and it is said
that the game once flourished in South and Central America.
But it was in England where the game of football actually started to take its shape. It all started in 1863 when the English found that rugby and football were no more compatible. The two associations split off on their separate course and hence the first
football association came into being. It was obvious that the game of football was getting its well deserved popularity. The Football Association had now more than 50 club members. The first football competition in the world was started and was named the FA
Cup.
Initially, international matches were played in Great Britain. This was an age when the game of football had hardly been heard in Europe. As the game gained more popularity, there was a boom of staggering crowds of spectators that created problems for many
countries. The talented players like John Love and Fergus Sutter started to receive remuneration for the football talent they had. This inspired many talented sportsmen to take up football as a profession.
The spread of football outside England was inevitable owing to the British influence in the outside world. Initially the progress was slow, but it gained momentum with time and soon the game was able to earn a lot of fame in the countries outside Europe.
Countries like New Zealand, Argentina, Chile, Switzerland and many others formed their own football associations. The international football community was now growing steadily despite of all the obstacles and hurdles it faced. In the year 1904 a committee
of seven members founded FIFA (International Federation of Association Football) in Paris.
It’s hard to predict the future of the glorious game of football. In the past several rowdy and disruptive attempts were made to ban this game. Football was banned in England between the years 1324 to 1667 by 30 royal and local laws. But this is all past.
Today the game has crossed all the pinnacles of success. The international football community has billions of doting exuberant fans. The football world cup serves as to be the largest sporting event of the world. The event serves as a platform where different
nations compete and get to know each other. The 2010 FIFA cup was the 19th football world cup that took place in South Africa. The event was hosted by South Africa and it was the first time in history that any African nation came into the bidding
process of hosting the tournament. The tournament turned out to be a huge success that helped South Africa improve its public transport infrastructure. Before the start of the tournament it was expected that the event would be the most-watched television event
in history. The prediction turned out to be true as hundreds of broadcasters transmitted the cup to a TV audience that exceeded 26 billion.
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