History of Football
Football or soccer, officially known as Association football is the most beloved sport around the globe. More than 200 countries play football and over 90% of them consider it as their #1 sport. This sport has existed in various forms throughout history, with the earliest known form, the Chinese game of cuju, dating back to the 3rd century BC. Various versions of the current game were widely popular in 19th century England and its rules were first standardized with the establishment of The Football Association and drafting of the ‘Laws of the Game’ in 1863.
The formal governing body of the sport is the Fédération Internationale de Football Association, commonly referred to as FIFA. The official FIFA site is your best bet when you want the latest and hottest news from the football world. FIFA also organizes the premier international football competition, the FIFA World Cup. Organized once every 4 years since its inception in 1930, this sporting event gets the highest television following in the world. The ‘World Cup finals’ involves 32 teams contending to win the title after they qualify in the qualification phase matches that take place over the preceding three years.
Previous Football season(s)
Many countries also host tournaments organized by their national leagues in which the various football clubs in the country compete against each other. The top 5 European leagues are Serie A (Italy), La Liga (Spain), the English Premier League (England), the Bundesliga (Germany) and Ligue 1 (France). In the English Premier League for example, more than 43 clubs have competed but only the four clubs (Manchester United, Blackburn Rovers, Arsenal, and Chelsea) have ever won the title. Most of the star football players like Ronaldo, Kaka, Drogba, Benzema, and Ibrahimovich belong to one of these high paying clubs (such as Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Barcelona and Real Madrid), apart from playing for their national teams.
