Soccer

Soccer, full name Association Football is the most popular sport in the entire world by a large margin, ahead of tennis, golf and cricket. In parts of the world that do not play any other version of football (such as rugby, Australian Rules football or Gaelic football), soccer is colloquially referred to simply as Football.

Origins of Soccer

Soccer has its origins in warfare, whereby a king or leader of a losing army would often be beheaded and have his head on a large pole to march around the victorious town, as well as the defeated town as a show of triumph.

At a point unknown, in country unknown, possibly several countries all at the same time, they began kicking the head of the defeated king or leader around in a game between themselves, triumphantly kicking the beheaded king or leader around the township.

This game eventually developed rules and its popularity rose, with the skulls eventually being replaced with rocks and large blown up balls.

Estimates have suggested that variations of soccer have been about since 1100 AD or earlier. Some suggest that it may have even predated the medieval practice of beheading fallen leaders and may have simply revolved around kicking rocks around for fun. Others suggest Calcio Fiorentino, a game played in Florence, was a first rudimental form of soccer.

Official formalised rules for soccer were set up in England in 1848, although it was popular around most of the world for centuries before that. England did not invent soccer, although they did formalise the rules as they are known today.

Countries that played soccer prior to the rules being formalised were primarily those that were involved in the medieval period and the constant warfare that ensued, which included most of Europe. Parts of South America may have independently invented their own version of soccer at the same time, though it may have been more due to voodoo practices than warfare.

Soccer's influences on other sports

Soccer is the basis of the sports of rugby, handball and Gaelic football, with rugby in turn being the basis of Rugby League, American football and Australian Rules football and Rugby League in turn being the basis of Touch football. In addition, the rules for soccer formed the basis of hockey, water polo and a wide variety of other sports, which in turn developed other sports. Most of the major team sports played in the world in some way have their basis in soccer. It is in many ways the first popular team sport in the world.

Of major team sports, cricket is one of few that is in no way related to soccer. Cricket in turn formed the basis for baseball, and as such these two sports are two of very few that are not in any way based on soccer.

Rules of soccer

Each team compromises 11 players, made up of 10 normal players and 1 goal keeper. Any number of substitutes may be available, even at the elite international level there being virtually no limit to how many may be used, although any time that a player is substituted, they may not return to the game for the remainder of a match, so substitutions are fairly rare with as few as 3 or 4 substitutions per side for the entire match being typical. Most teams at the elite level typically have a full 11 players available as substitutes, with each player able to replace any others on the field in the event of injury, in addition to a number of specific role players and a 2nd spare goal keeper (3 total), making about 20 players total who are available as substitutes for an 11 man side. Most substitutes do not play in the game in which they are named as substitutes at the elite level.

With the exception of the goal keeper, no other players may touch the ball with their hands or arms. They may use any part of their body other than their hands and arms, including their chest and, commonly, their head, though typically most play is made using their feet. The exception to this is when the ball is out of bounds, when a player must throw it in over their heads to return the ball into the field of play. Goal keepers have no restrictions at all as to what part of their body they may use to touch the ball, though outside of the goal square they have the same restrictions as any other player, and if a player from their side passes the ball to them they similarly have the same restrictions as any other player. The goal keeper is the only player who may hold the ball to kick it from mid air, or who may bounce the ball before kicking it. Goal keepers typically wear a different uniform to the rest of the players. A goal keeper must be clearly distinguished from all other players.

Tackles are permitted using the feet, although not in a way that would cause the other player to trip up or otherwise aim to deliberately touch the player they are tackling. Soccer is generally a non-contact sport, although injuries do occasionally happen, usually due to infringements. Soccer has a reputation as a sport in which players over-dramatise the extent of their injuries, pretending to have injuries that they do not have in order to get free kicks and especially penalties and to try to get the opposition players to get a yellow card or worse a red card and be sent off. While this practice of acting is officially outlawed, it is common at all levels of the sport. Many who dislike soccer use this as a criticism that soccer is a "soft" sport, preferring more violent sports such as rugby, in which players typically pretend not to have injuries when they are in reality seriously injured.

At the start of the game, the two sides start at opposite halves of the ground, with the goal keepers typically near to the goals. One side is given the ball to start with (there is no contest to see who gets the first tap) and they then pass the ball, often backwards, to their team mates and then move through the opposing team's defence towards the goals. The same process happens in the event of a goal and at half time.

The aim of the game is to score goals, which is a simple matter of getting the ball to go in a relatively short and wide net, which is high enough that most full grown men can just touch the top with a leap at full stretch and is wide enough that if starting from the middle most full grown men can just barely jump from a standing start to either side of the net. Thus, in theory, the goal keeper can defend against all shots that are struck, so long as they know where the ball is going.

With experienced teams, therefore, the aim is to trick the goal keeper into thinking that the ball is going somewhere else than where it is going, so that they cannot stop the ball from going in. The ball may be kicked in from the side (a cross) then intercepted at any stage and kicked towards the net, giving the goal keeper little time to react and making him guess as to where the strike is coming from. Many and various other tricks are used to try to get the goal keeper off guard, so that he will miss the chance to defend the goal.

Goals can be disallowed due to a concept known as "off side", which requires that any attacking player, as at when he first moves forward to collect a ball that is passed to him, must have at least 1 defender, not counting the opposition goalkeeper, closer to the goals. If they do not, then they are considered to be "off side", which is considered to be cheating, and a free kick is awarded to the opposite team. If an off side is called after a goal is scored, the goal does not count. The off side rule was put in place to stop a player from standing close to the goals and then only having to beat the goal keeper. In other sports, such as basketball and Australian Rules football, it is a common tactic for a player to try to be by themselves close to goals and accept a long pass. In soccer, this is considered to be cheating. Many who are not used to soccer or sports with the same rules as soccer find the off side rule the most confusing aspect of the game.

Popularity of soccer

Soccer is by far the most popular sport in the world and is the basis of more team sports than any other sport. It is in many ways the original team sport and probably the first ever team sport of any kind played anywhere in the world, or at least some version of it was.

Soccer is most popular in Europe and South America, where in almost every country in those two continents it is by far the most popular sport in each country. It is no surprise that traditionally Europe and South America have dominated international soccer tournaments, with 4 yearly World Cups often being a battle of Europe versus South America.

Traditionally, the most powerful soccer countries have been Brazil (South America), Argentina (South America), Italy (Europe) and Germany (Europe), although England (Europe), who invented the official rules for soccer, have also been fairly strong. Other teams to win World Cups include Uruguay (South America), France (Europe) and most recently Spain (Europe). No team from outside of Europe and South America has ever won a men's World Cup title (although United States of America, from North America, have won women's World Cup titles).

Outside of Europe and South America, soccer is growing in popularity worldwide, with Africa and Asia having an increasing presence in World Cup tournaments. United States of America, since they hosted the World Cup in 1990, and subsequently won women's World Cup, has been increasingly competitive in international tournaments and is now usually ranked in the top 20. Australia have also made it to the last 2 World Cups, and New Zealand made it to the most recent one.

There is no country in the world in which soccer is not one of the 10 most popular sports in that country. In over half of the world's countries, soccer is the most popular sport in the country.

Criticism

• Low scoring - games often decided by capricious penalty kick contests at end.
• Flopping - players fake injuries
• Few substitutions allowed - play deteriorates toward end of game and sometimes teams have to play shorthanded
• Clock counts up rather than down, penalty time added, unclear how much time remains in game.

Soccer at the Olympics

Soccer at the Olympics is an under 23 event, so as to not take away from the more serious World Cup fixtures, which are also held every 4 years, alternating with the Olympic sessions. Soccer at the Olympics is seen by soccer followers as a kind of junior tournament and is not taken as seriously.

Nonetheless, soccer remains the most popular sport at the Olympics, begins before the rest of the Olympics does and goes right through to the end of the Olympics proper.

It has been said by many that if soccer were not at the Olympics then the Olympics would fail as a venture, because soccer makes the Olympics get the viewers that they need to be able to pay for all of the other sports.

World Cup

Other sports have as their premium event either a World Cup or World Championships, but only soccer simply refers to it as the "World Cup". Other sports refer to it as the "World Cup ...", for example "Cricket World Cup", "Rugby World Cup", "World Cup of Rugby League", "World Cup Skiing" etc. Soccer considers itself as the original sport and hence does not deem that it needs to say the name of the sport afterwards. It is not described as the Football World Cup either, simply as the World Cup.

The World Cup gets more viewers than the Olympics and is the most watched and followed sporting event in the world by a wide margin. Throughout most of the world, especially the half of the world in which soccer is that country's most popular sport, the World Cup gets incredible responses. More than any other sporting event anywhere in the world, the World Cup stops everything. Even in cricket-mad India, who surely have the most passionate supporters of any country in the world for any sport anywhere in the world, they do not have the same reaction that World Cup soccer does worldwide.