subject: Understanding The Roots Of Soccer [print this page] Soccer has become a very popular sport internationally. There are a lot of people all around the world that gather to watch their country's soccer team fight for victory in the world cup every four years.
Although soccer has become a very popular sport there are not many people that understand where soccer came from. Soccer has a rich history and the popularity of this sport has triggered an interest in the origin of the sport.
The rules that are established now and that the players are supposed to abide by were established in the 19th century. The schools in England that were playing during this time took great effort to find a way to standardize the way that people played the sport.
Cambridge became the first school to create a set of rules that was written down and agreed upon. The first association of football was very much influenced by the officials that came from the Cambridge school.
The official Cambridge rules were written with many different officials from different surrounding schools in attendance. They were all able to agree upon rules that each school would abide by when they played each other in soccer.
The English-speaking world developed many different small clubs and organizations that played this sport. There were multiple leagues formed and many individuals found themselves participating in this competitive sport.
The next influential set of rules that were developed came from a set of public school pupils. The Sheffield Football Club was the start of the Sheffield FA, which eventually created many of the rules that were followed around the world.
The Football Association was developed formally in 1863. From this point on there has been a group of individuals that have met and developed the rules and regulations that must be abided by in all professional games of soccer.
Although the development of soccer does not have an intriguing history or does not present a nail biting story, the sport itself evokes passion in all parts of the world. People from almost every country gather together to watch their favorite team play.
Modern technology has allowed individuals to watch the sport from the comfort of their own home on the television or even on the computer. Internationally, this sport has become the most watched sport in the world.
Part of the popularity of soccer comes from the fact that anyone can start to play soccer. There is not much equipment that is required to play and the premise of the sport is not hard to learn or hard to practice.
If you can train yourself to run for long distances you will have mastered half of the physical battle. Soccer players have to be in excellent shape to ensure that they can make it up and down the field while the ball moves.
There is a high level of coordination that is required to be able to move the ball with your feet and with your feet only. When the ball touches the hand of the player the play must stop and a penalty is given to the team that touched the ball.
Children all around the world are able to start practicing this sport at a very young age. As long as the children have a soccer ball they are able to start practicing the movement that is required to travel with the ball up and down the field.
The rules of the game are simple and few. There are seventeen rules, or laws, that can be applied to any level of the sport.
Although these governing rules are to be abided by at any level of the sport, these rules are often tweaked for the level of the players. Seniors, juniors and even those with physical disabilities are able to play this game with some modifications to the rules.
There are a lot of people all around the world that do not enjoy the sport of soccer. The scores in soccer games are very low.
Some soccer games end with only one point having been scored the whole game. The intensity and the passion that comes from this game comes from the plays that occur between the points.
Players fight for possession of the ball and then have to utilize the other players around them to get the ball into their opponent's goal. Because the field is so large it can take a long time to get the ball from one side to the other.
