Football refers to a number of sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball with the foot to score a goal. The most popular of these sports worldwide is association football, more commonly known as just "football" or "soccer". Unqualified, the word football applies to whichever form of football is the most popular in the regional context in which the word appears, including association football, as well as American football, Australian rules football, Canadian football, Gaelic football, rugby league, rugby union and other related games. These variations of football are known as football codes.
The influence and power of the British Empire allowed these rules of football to spread, including to areas of British influence outside of the directly controlled Empire, though by the end of the nineteenth century, distinct regional codes were already developing: Gaelic Football, for example, deliberately incorporated the rules of local traditional football games in order to maintain their heritage.In 1888, The Football League was founded in England, becoming the first of many professional football competitions. During the twentieth century, the various codes of football became amongst the most popular team sports in the world.
There are confilicting explanations of the origin of the word "football". It is widely assumed that the word "football" (or "foot ball") references the action of the foot kicking a ball. There is a alternative explanation, which is that football originally referred to a variety of games in medieval Europe, which were played on foot. There is no conclusive evidence for either explanation.
Of the 45 national FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) affiliates in which English is an official or primary language, 43 use football in their organisations' official names (only Canada and the United States use soccer). Soccer has been the prevailing term for association football in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, where other codes of football are dominant. The term used for association football is going through a period of transition in recent times. In 2005, Australia's association football governing body changed its name from soccer to football to align with the general international usage of the term. Soccer will officially become football in Australia next year after the Australian Soccer Association (ASA) announced it would change its name to Football Federation Australia (FFA).ASA chairman Frank Lowy said the symbolic move would bring Australia into line with the vast majority of other countries which call the sport football. "2005 will be one of the most crucial in the history of football in Australia and we will start it off with this symbolic move," Lowy said.
In 2006, New Zealand decided to follow suit citing "the international game is called football".
An early reference to a ball game that was probably football comes from 1280 at Ulgham, Northumberland, England: "Henry... while playing at ball.. ran against David". Football was played in Ireland in 1308, with a documented reference to John McCrocan, a spectator at a "football game" at Newcastle, County Down being charged with accidentally stabbing a player named William Bernard.Another reference to a football game comes in 1321 at Shouldham, Norfolk, England: "during the game at ball as he kicked the ball, a lay friend of his... ran against him and wounded himself".
In 1363, King Edward III of England issued a proclamation banning "...handball, football, or hockey; coursing and cock-fighting, or other such idle games",showing that "football" was being differentiated from games as they involved other parts of the body, such as handball, not simply because it was played on foot.
Most European countries have two principal association football competitions:
History of FIFA world cup
A group of visionary French football administrators, led in the 1920s by the innovative Jules Rimet, are credited with the original idea of bringing the world's strongest national football teams together to compete for the title of World Champions. The original gold trophy bore Jules Rimet's name and was contested three times in the 1930s, before the Second World War put a 12-year stop to the competition.
When it resumed, the FIFA World Cup rapidly advanced to its undisputed status as the greatest single sporting event of the modern world. Held since 1958 alternately in Europe and the Americas, the World Cup broke new ground with the Executive Committee's decision in May 1996 to select Korea and Japan as co-hosts for the 2002 edition.
Since 1930, the 16 tournaments have seen only seven different winners. However, the FIFA World Cup has also been punctuated by dramatic upsets that have helped create footballing history - the United States defeating England in 1950, North Korea's defeat of Italy in 1966, Cameroon's emergence in the 1980s and their opening match defeat of the Argentinean cup-holders in 1990....
Today, the FIFA World Cup holds the entire global public under its spell. An accumulated audience of over 37 billion people watched the France 98 tournament, including approximately 1.3 billion for the final alone, while over 2.7 million people flocked to watch the 64 matches in the French stadia.
After all these years and so many changes, however, the main focus of the FIFA World Cup remains the same - the glistening golden trophy, which is the embodiment of every footballer's ambition.
There are currently 209 men's national football teams affiliated to the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the world's football governing body, through their national football associations. They are eligible to enter the FIFA World Cup
and matches between them are recognized as official international
matches. Based on their match results over the previous four-year
period, the FIFA World Rankings, published monthly by FIFA, compare the relative strengths of the national teams.
Each of these national teams is also affiliated to one of the six confederations, according to their continental zones:
The influence and power of the British Empire allowed these rules of football to spread, including to areas of British influence outside of the directly controlled Empire, though by the end of the nineteenth century, distinct regional codes were already developing: Gaelic Football, for example, deliberately incorporated the rules of local traditional football games in order to maintain their heritage.In 1888, The Football League was founded in England, becoming the first of many professional football competitions. During the twentieth century, the various codes of football became amongst the most popular team sports in the world.
There are confilicting explanations of the origin of the word "football". It is widely assumed that the word "football" (or "foot ball") references the action of the foot kicking a ball. There is a alternative explanation, which is that football originally referred to a variety of games in medieval Europe, which were played on foot. There is no conclusive evidence for either explanation.
Of the 45 national FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) affiliates in which English is an official or primary language, 43 use football in their organisations' official names (only Canada and the United States use soccer). Soccer has been the prevailing term for association football in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, where other codes of football are dominant. The term used for association football is going through a period of transition in recent times. In 2005, Australia's association football governing body changed its name from soccer to football to align with the general international usage of the term. Soccer will officially become football in Australia next year after the Australian Soccer Association (ASA) announced it would change its name to Football Federation Australia (FFA).ASA chairman Frank Lowy said the symbolic move would bring Australia into line with the vast majority of other countries which call the sport football. "2005 will be one of the most crucial in the history of football in Australia and we will start it off with this symbolic move," Lowy said.
In 2006, New Zealand decided to follow suit citing "the international game is called football".
An early reference to a ball game that was probably football comes from 1280 at Ulgham, Northumberland, England: "Henry... while playing at ball.. ran against David". Football was played in Ireland in 1308, with a documented reference to John McCrocan, a spectator at a "football game" at Newcastle, County Down being charged with accidentally stabbing a player named William Bernard.Another reference to a football game comes in 1321 at Shouldham, Norfolk, England: "during the game at ball as he kicked the ball, a lay friend of his... ran against him and wounded himself".
In 1363, King Edward III of England issued a proclamation banning "...handball, football, or hockey; coursing and cock-fighting, or other such idle games",showing that "football" was being differentiated from games as they involved other parts of the body, such as handball, not simply because it was played on foot.
Most European countries have two principal association football competitions:
- a more prestigious league which is typically a double round-robin tournament restricted to the elite clubs, and
- a cup which is a single-elimination tournament open to both the elite and lesser clubs.
History of FIFA world cup
A group of visionary French football administrators, led in the 1920s by the innovative Jules Rimet, are credited with the original idea of bringing the world's strongest national football teams together to compete for the title of World Champions. The original gold trophy bore Jules Rimet's name and was contested three times in the 1930s, before the Second World War put a 12-year stop to the competition.
When it resumed, the FIFA World Cup rapidly advanced to its undisputed status as the greatest single sporting event of the modern world. Held since 1958 alternately in Europe and the Americas, the World Cup broke new ground with the Executive Committee's decision in May 1996 to select Korea and Japan as co-hosts for the 2002 edition.
Since 1930, the 16 tournaments have seen only seven different winners. However, the FIFA World Cup has also been punctuated by dramatic upsets that have helped create footballing history - the United States defeating England in 1950, North Korea's defeat of Italy in 1966, Cameroon's emergence in the 1980s and their opening match defeat of the Argentinean cup-holders in 1990....
Today, the FIFA World Cup holds the entire global public under its spell. An accumulated audience of over 37 billion people watched the France 98 tournament, including approximately 1.3 billion for the final alone, while over 2.7 million people flocked to watch the 64 matches in the French stadia.
After all these years and so many changes, however, the main focus of the FIFA World Cup remains the same - the glistening golden trophy, which is the embodiment of every footballer's ambition.
FIFA affiliated confederations
Each of these national teams is also affiliated to one of the six confederations, according to their continental zones:
- Asia – Asian Football Confederation (AFC)
- Africa – Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF)
- North and Central America and the Caribbean – Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF)
- South America – Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (CONMEBOL)
- Oceania – Oceania Football Confederation (OFC)
- Europe – Union of European Football Associations (UEFA)
- Additionally 22 nations in Africa and Asia belong to the Union of Arab Football Associations (UAFA) in addition to their respective regional confederations.
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