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Football (soccer)




Football, also called soccer and referred to colloquially as footie, is the
most popular team sport in the world in both number of spectators and number
of active participants. The international governing body of football is the
Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). In many countries
particularly in South America and Europe, football is more than just a game:
it is a way of life. Millions of people play for amateur clubs or regularly
go to a stadium to follow their home team and avidly watch the game on television.

Name

The name Association football was first used when the sport was codified by
the Football Association at the Freemason's Tavern, London on October 25
1863 to distinguish it from the numerous versions of football that were
around at the time. The word soccer is a colloquial abbreviation of
'Association' and first appeared in the 1880s. The word is sometimes
credited to a student at Oxford called Charles Wreford Brown. He is said to
have often referred to breakfast as 'brekkers' and rugby football as
'rugger' etc. He went on to play for the English national side and became
vice-president of the Football Association. The term 'Association football'
is rarely used today, though some clubs still use Association Football Club
("AFC") in their names .

In the late 19th century the word 'soccer' tended to be used by the
upper-class elite, whilst the majority of ordinary working people used the
word football. The sport was exported by expatriate Britons to much of the
rest of the world and many of these nations adopted the common English term
into their own language. Accordingly, it became Fu§ball in German, voetbal
in Dutch, fotball in Scandinavian languages, futebol in Portuguese, and
fœtbol in Spanish. In France the word remained unchanged as le football (but
is often shortened to le foot), although in Quebec the word is le soccer. In
Italy, a ceremonial Florentine court ritual known as o calcio storico
("kickball in costume") bore enough similarly to the imported game for the
word calcio to be accepted instead.

Today the word 'soccer' is predominantly used by English speaking-nations
that have evolved their own native codes of football:

   * Australia - see: Australian Rules football
   * Republic of Ireland - see: Gaelic football
   * Canada - see: Canadian football
   * United States - see: American football

However, this was not always the case. Indeed, the first Association
football team formed outside of England was the Oneida Football Club of
Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Early leagues in the US mostly called themselves
football leagues, including the American League of Professional Football,
National Association Football League and the Southern New England Football
League.

The governing body of the sport in the US did not drop the word "football"
from its name until 1974, and did not have the word "soccer" in its name
until 1945. What is now the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) was
originally the US Football Association, and was formed in 1912 by the merger
of the American Football Association and the American Amateur Football
Association. In 1945 the word "soccer" was added to the official name of the
organization and the word football was kept, resulting in the name of "US
Soccer Football Association".

The USSFA later dropped the word "football", replacing it with another word
beginning with "F" to become what it is today, the USSF or US Soccer
Federation. Similarly in Australia the early governing bodies used the term
'British Football' (i.e. the Southern British Football Association in New
South Wales, the Anglo-Australian Football Association in Victoria and the
British Football Associations of Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania.

In countries that didn't develop a rival sport with a claim to the name
football the word 'soccer' was very rarely used. Today the growing use of
the word may well owe much to the cultural dominance of the USA, which is
shaping language and definitions well beyond its borders. However football
remains by far the most common word used worldwide to describe the sport.

The Laws of Football

The rules of football are known as Laws of Football [1] and are based on
efforts made in the mid-19th century to standardise the rules of the widely
varying games of football played at the public schools and universities of
England. The first set of rules resembling the modern game were produced at
Trinity College, Cambridge in 1848, at a meeting attended by representatives
from Eton, Harrow, Rugby, Winchester and Shrewsbury, but it was far from
universally adopted. In particular, the width of a football goal is defined
as the distance between two trees in a Cambridge park. A number of revised
rules were subsequently proposed, most notably by the Sheffield football
club (formed by former pupils from Harrow) in 1857 and the rules of JC
Thring in 1862. These efforts culminated in the formation of the Football
Association in 1863. Between October and December 1863 at the Freemason's
tavern in London, the Football Association held a series of six meetings
which eventually produced the first comprehensive set of rules. At the final
meeting, the representative from Blackheath withdrew his club from the FA
over a rule outlawing hacking (kicking an opponent in the shins). The
Blackheath club later went on to form the Rugby Football Union.

Today the laws of football are determined by the International Football
Association Board (IFAB). The board was formed in 1882 after a meeting in
Manchester of the Football Association, the Scottish Football Association
(SFA), the Football Association of Wales (FAW) and the Irish Football
Association (IFA) (now the governing body in Northern Ireland and not to be
confused with the Football Assocation of Ireland (FAI) the governing body in
the Republic of Ireland). The International football body FIFA was formed in
Paris in 1884 and declared that they would adhere to the rules laid down by
the IFAB. The growing popularity of the international game led to the
admittance of FIFA representatives to the IFAB in 1913. Today the board is
made up of four representatives from FIFA and one representative from each
of the British associations.

Object of the game

Two teams of eleven players on each side contend to get a spherical ball
into the other team's goal. The side which does this the most frequently is
the winner. The primary rule for this objective is that nearly all players
cannot use their hands or arms in any way while on the field.

Officials

The game is presided over by a referee, whose decisions are final, assisted
by two linesmen, now officially referred to in these days of PC as referee's
assistants. In many games a replacement is available, and he or she is
commonly known as the fourth official

Teams

Each team has a goal keeper that is allowed to touch the ball with his arms
and shoulders when he is standing within the outer marked area around the
home goal, which is called the penalty area (aka the "box"). The penalty
area or the 18 yards box, has limits set twelve yards to each side of the
goal, and 18 yards in front of it.

The ten outfield players on either side are not allowed to touch the ball
with their arms or shoulders whilst the ball is in play, but may however
play it with any other part of their anatomies. The sole exception to this
is when the ball is kicked out of play and a throw in results.

A number, (variable by league and nation), of players may be replaced by
substitutes during the course of the game. The usual reasons for a player's
replacement include injury, tiredness, ineffectiveness, a tactical switch,
or to waste a little time at the end of a finely poised game.

Playing field

According to FIFA regulations the length of the football field (or "pitch")
for international matches should be in the range (100-110 metres) and the
width should be in the range 64-75 metres. (For other matches the
constraints are looser: 90-120 metres length by 45-90 metres width.) The
area is under a hectarea.

The pitch is divided at the centre: this is the halfway line. Exactly
halfway across the halfway line is the centre spot (this is where the ball
commences play from). A circle is drawn around the centre spot, the centre
circle which has a radius of 10 yards from the centre spot.

At either end of the pitch is a goal. This is a letterbox-shaped receptacle
with a net behind it whose dimensions are: 8 feet in height and 24 feet in
width. Two boxes are marked out on the pitch in front of the goal. The
smaller box, which is laid out to surround the goal at an equal distance of
6 yards is to denote where the goalkeeper is to take goal kicks from. The
outer box is known as the penalty area or the 18 yards box, and is set
twelve yards to each side of the goal, and 18 yards in front of it. A small
semicircle is also drawn at the edge of the penalty area, the D. This is an
exclusion zone for all players other than the one taking the kick in the
event of a penalty being awarded.

The penalty spot is immediately in the middle of and 12 yards in front of
the goal.

In each corner of the pitch a small quarter circle with a 1 yard radius is
drawn where corner kicks are taken from.

Duration

Ordinarily a match lasts 90 minutes (two halves - 45 minutes each) plus any
additional time for stoppages. The only events for which time may be added
are for the assessment of injured players, the removal of injured players
and time wasting (which may include time for substitutions). Some games,
particularly knock-out competition matches, provide for 'extra time' in the
event of a tied result at the end of normal time. Other variations on a
theme such as the 'golden goal' or 'penalty shoot-outs' may also be involved
in concluding a game.

Events

The major international competition in football is the World Cup organised
by FIFA. The World Cup competition takes place over a two year period. Over
160 national teams compete in regional qualifying tournaments for a place in
the finals. The final tournament which is held every four years, now
involves 32 national teams (increased from 24 in 1998) competing over a 4
week period.

The major national competitions of the continents are:

   * Europe: European Championship
   * South America: Copa America
   * Africa: African Nations Cup
   * Asia: Asian Cup
   * North America: CONCACAF Gold Cup
   * Oceania: Oceania Cup

The major club event in Europe is the Champions League

Violence

This has a bad side, as groups of fanatics have often caused disturbances
and sometimes tragedies (see hooligans, Hillsborough disaster, Heysel
Stadium and Football War).

National leagues

Here is a list of links to national league football teams:

   * Brazilian Football League Teams
   * Dutch Football League teams
   * English Football League teams
   * French Football League Teams
   * German Football League Teams
   * Italian Football League
   * Norwegian Football League teams
   * Scottish Football League
   * Sierra Leonean Football League teams
   * South African Football League teams
   * Spanish football league teams
   * United States soccer teams
   * Welsh football league teams

National football teams

Here is a list of links to pages relating to national football teams:

   * Argentinian national football team
   * Brazilian national football team
   * English national football team
   * French national football team
   * German national football team
   * Iranian national football team
   * Italian national football team
   * Norwegian national football team
   * Swedish national football team

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