Back in the 1920s, FIFA President Jules Rimet and a group of French football administrators suggested the idea of bringing the world’s top national football teams together for a tournament. They would compete head-to-head for the title of “World Champions” with a gold trophy attesting to their accomplishment. Rimet knew that any true global prize [...]
- Posted in 10. Football
As the IFAB was getting its act together, organised football was also taking shape on the Continent. In May 1904, representatives from seven European football associations—France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland—met in Paris and inaugurated the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). Many advocates of football in the United Kingdom saw FIFA [...]
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The Football Association’s inaugural set of 14 rules were written by Ebenezer Cobb Morley and agreed upon at the Freemasons’ Tavern in London in 1863. They gradually became the basic “Laws” of football played everywhere. Excluded from the sport was catching the ball with hands, hacking players with kicks below the knee, and violent outbursts [...]
- Posted in 10. Football
Football is not only the world’s most popular sport; it is also one of its oldest. Originally described as “kicking the ball,” the activity that evolved into football or “soccer” probably started in China nearly 3,000 years ago during the Han Dynasty. That’s when the game called “Tsu’ Chu” was invented. According to ancient Chinese [...]
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Once every four years, 32 teams gather for a month-long competition to determine who are the greatest footballers on the planet—the FIFA World Cup. Although the event typically takes place in only one country, it is an event of global proportion, viewed on television and the Internet by no fewer than 260~400 million fans and [...]
- Posted in 10. Football