Soccer, the most popular sport in the world. Organized soccer is played in 144 nations, with nearly 20 million players participating. The final match of the World Cup, held every four years, is televised around the world and always attracts over a billion viewers. Soccer stadiums such as the Maracana Stadium in Brazil, which has held crowds of more than 200,000, are built to accommodate the multitudes of spectators who enjoy the game.

The essence of soccer is its simplicity. Known as football in much of the world, it is still a game for the masses, speaking a language that knows no international barriers. The object of the game is to get the ball, by any means except using the hands or arms, into the rectangular goals at each end of the field. The team scoring the most goals is the winner.

Historical evidence

The very earliest form of the game for which there is scientific evidence was an exercise of precisely this skilful technique dating back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries B.C. in China. A military manual dating from the period of the Han Dynasty includes among the physical education exercises, the “Tsu’Chu”.

This consisted of kicking a leather ball filled with feathers and hair through an opening, measuring only 30 - 40 cm in width, into a small net fixed onto long bamboo canes - a feat which obviously demanded great skill and excellent technique. A variation of this exercise also existed, whereby the player was not permitted to aim at his target unimpeded, but had to use his feet, chest, back and shoulders whilst trying to withstand the attacks of his opponents. Use of the hands was not permitted. The ball artistry of today’s top players is therefore not quite as new as some people may assume.

Another form of the game, also originating from the Far East, was the Japanese Kemari, which dates from about 500 to 600 years later and is still played today. This is a type of circular football game, far less spectacular, but, for that reason, a ‘more dignified and ceremonious experience, requiring certain skills, but not competitive ‘ in the way the Chinese game was, nor is there the slightest sign of struggle for possession of the ball. The players had to pass the ball to each other, in a relatively small space, trying not to let it touch the ground.

The Greek game “episkyros”, relatively little of which has been handed down, was much livelier, as was the Roman game “Harpastum”. The latter was played with a smaller ball with two teams contesting the game on a rectangular field marked by boundary lines and a centre-line. The object was to get the ball over the opponents’ boundary lines. The ball was passed between players and trickery was the order of the day. Each team member had his own specific tactical assignment and the spectators took a vociferous interest in the proceedings and the score. The role of the feet in this game was so small as scarcely to be of consequence. This game remained popular for 700 or 800 years, but, although the Romans took it to England with them, it is doubtful whether it can be considered as a forerunner of contemporary football.

The same applies for hurling, a popular game with the Celtic population, which is played to this very day in Cornwall and Ireland. lt is possible that influences were asserted, but it is certain that the decisive development of the game of football with which we are now familiar took place in England and Scotland.

Modern Soccer

The modern-day outgrowth of soccer is known to have started in England, and the first ball reportedly was the head of a dead Danish brigand. Although King Edward III prohibited soccer in 1365 because of its excessive violence and for military reasons playing took time away from archery practice the game had become too popular to be curtailed.

The earliest organized games were massive confrontations between teams consisting of two or three parishes each, with goals as many as 3 to 4 miles (56.5 km) apart. By 1801 the game had been refined, requiring a limited and equal number of participants on each side and confining the playing area to between 80 and 100 yards (70.90 meters), with a goal at each end. The goal was usually made of two sticks a few feet apart. The first crossbars were merely lengths of tape stretched between the two goalposts. In 1875 the Football Association made the bar mandatory.

In the 1850s the rules still varied from place to place, and consequently the number of players on a side ranged from 15 to 20. The current 11-player teams were formally established in 1870, with 9 forwards and 2 defenders the most common formation. Not until the 1880s was the goalkeeper formally distinguished from the other players; at that time the goalkeeper was the only player allowed to touch the ball with his hands.

In 1857 the first soccer club was formed in Sheffield, England. This set the stage for one of the most significant dates in soccer history, Oct. 26, 1863. On this date in London, 11 clubs met to form the Football Association, which laid the foundations for the nearly 140 modern national associations. With the advent of a national association in England, any soccer played under its jurisdiction was called association football. As time passed the word association was abbreviated to assoc., which eventually gave way to the word soccer, the game’s common name in North America.

In 1904 a world governing body, the F?d?ration Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), was created to coordinate all of the national soccer associations in the world. The result has been the development of spectacular international competitions such as the World Cup, instituted in 1930, which have sparked soccer’s growth into the world’s most popular sport.

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