The origins of soccer

Soccer ball (world cup Brazil 2014 ball)
http://www.elfantasports.com/soccer_ball.html

Soccer is an eleven a side game between two teams. The game involves using any part of the body apart from the hands (mainly the feet) to get the spherical ball into the goal.

The origins of soccer can be traced back to many countries and ancient civilisations such as china (during the han dynasty), Greece, Rome and Japan. The game wasn't properly formed however until 1863 in England.


According to historians a game named cuju is believed to be the earliest form of football. Cuju was believed to have been formed during the han dynasty between 206 -220AD. The game involved using any part of the body apart from the hands to get the ball into an open net. It was remarkably like football. Other variations of the game include  Phaininda, episkyros and harpastum. They were greek and roman ball games and were played involving hands and violence. They resembled volleyball, rugby and wrestling as well as soccer. Non-competitive games included kemari in Japan, chuk-guk in Korea and woggabaliri in Australia.

Soccer stadium (Old trafford, Manchester United)
http://www.sportskeeda.com/football/manchester-united-old-trafford-naming-rights-not-for-sale

Soccer began in 1863 in england, when the football association and the rugby football association branched off from each other, making the football association of england the first governing sports body. On 21 May 1904 FIFA was founded in Paris by delegates from Belgium, France, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland. Here they created the statutes of the game, unifying the laws of the game and the foundations for future development.

Fifa logo
http://logok.org/fifa-logo/fifa-logo-old/

Today soccer is the worlds most popular sport. According to Fifa 270 million people are involved in football, approximately 4% of the worlds population. Soccer is a billion euro franchise, with major clubs like real Madrid and Manchester united worth well over the billion mark and dishing out hundreds of millions on players and wages alone each year alone. There's no telling how much money this franchise is actually worth.