Football is undoubtedly the most popular and common team sport in the world. There are millions of football fans in every corner of our planet. Although it’s a comparatively young game with short history, most children and adults find fascination with football. They say that the main reason for such popularity is a variety of techniques and the entertainment it provides.
Relatively large playground allows practicing countless combinations. You can rarely see the championship, during which there are exactly the same positions or solutions. Besides, spectators seem to be involved in this game, as well as players. Today, football is a number of sports, which include kicking a ball to score a goal. Different countries introduce their own variations of football. For example, American football or soccer, Canadian football, Australian football, English rugby, etc.
The history of football is quite interesting. It is believed to have originated in Ancient Greece, then in Rome. People at those times played a number of ball games. Ancient China also had a game, which resembled modern soccer. Traditional football was invented by the Italians and brought to British islands. After all, England was the country where the game was developed and codified. It happened in 1863. Today, football association is governed and supervised by FIFA (Federation internationale de football association), which organizes World Cup championship every four years. The rules of game are simple. International matches last 90 minutes and are divided into two halves.
People, who are responsible for the match, are two linesmen and a referee. Goalkeepers are the only people in the game, who can touch the ball with their hands. All the other field players use their feet to kick the ball into position and score a goal. The team that scored most of the goals wins at the end of the match, but there are cases when the number of goals is even. In this situation either a draw is declared, or an extra time, penalty shootout is set.
To be successful in football a player should have stamina and certain skills. This game also requires tremendous amount of teamwork and sportsmanship. None of the field players can win without cooperation with other ten players. Only when all eleven players in a team work together success is possible. Football is rather unpredictable.
For example, one week the team plays big, the other week they play as for the first time. Of course, some people tend to predict the results of the game, but they can never be sure how dedicated and mentally prepared the players are in each case. That makes football an exciting and fun to follow game.