Soccer: An Introduction to the World’s Sport
Though it is referred to by several different names, there is only one sport whose popularity far exceeds that of all the other games played by man, and because of this, can authentically be deemed the world’s sport. If you live in Europe, you most likely know this sport as Association Football; if you live in the Middle East, Asia, or the Latin American regions of the world, you know it simply as football; and if you live in North America, you know it as soccer. No matter the country you live in, the language you speak, or what you call this sport, the undeniable fact is that soccer is the most prevalent sport in the world, played by all races, ages, religions, and genders, and that to many of the six billion inhabitants of this planet, it is as natural a part of life as breathing.
As with anything else, the understanding and appreciation of the complexities of soccer start off with knowing the history of the game and how that game has evolved from its earliest known form in 2nd century B.C. China to the internationally exercised game we know today. Throughout this paper, the game will be analyzed by region, including its history, socio-economic impacts, and the players who have turned themselves into national and sometimes international manifestations of the countries they represent by being the best in the game. We will trace the game from its humble beginnings as the unorganized kicking of rocks or leather balls with few rules, to its spread through Asia, Europe, and the Americas, culminating in an overview of what soccer has become today, and how it impacts the global community.
The foundations for what the world knows today as football or soccer can be found in cuju (“cu” means “kicking the ball with feet” and “ju” means “stuffed ball made of hide”), a Chinese game involving the kicking of a leather ball among players, with the objective of getting the ball through a hole in a silk sheet [1]. Cuju was first used as a way to train soldiers to become fiercer because in its early stages, the game had very few rules and many matches quickly turned physical. From this earliest of ball games sprung a great deal of variations on not only the few rules it had, but also on the material the ball was made from, the purpose for playing, and who was allowed to play. As time went on and the game and its variants spread outside of China, it became not only a training method for soldiers, but it also took on the role of being a favored pastime of youths and the working class, a means of income for professionals, and entertainment for the ruling class [2].
Soccer’s spread to new regions of the world was greatly amplified during the European Middle Ages, the time period between the 5th century and the 16th century A.D., because of the many military conquests undertaken during that time—most notably, the Crusades. The various conquests during that time aided in the spread of soccer because armies were marching very long distances from home to battle their adversaries, often to places they had never been, and as they passed through towns, they taught the locals how to play and competed with them. Despite this 1,100 year spread of the game, as the close of the 16th century drew near, there was still no uniform set of rules adhered to by all participants. The countless variations of the game led to a jumbled and unorganized mob-like method of game play when two different peoples met because every region’s rules were slightly, and sometimes drastically, different from another’s.
This lack of uniformity in the game would slowly begin to change in the early 17th century when structured teams formed (known as “sides” or “parties”) at public school institutions across England [3]. Although the situation with the public schools was similar to that of the Middle Ages in that each school had its own rules of play, having the organized teams with defined positions was a major step toward unifying the game so two school teams could compete against each other.
Standardization of the rules of the game continued to slowly evolve throughout the rest of the 17th century and into the 18th and 19th centuries and was finally in sight in 1863 when representatives from various soccer clubs and the prominent English public schools met and formed The Football Association (FA), the governing body for soccer in England, responsible for drafting the game’s first set of comprehensive rules. Then, in 1886, in partnership with the soccer governing bodies of Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, the FA evolved into the International Football Association Board (IFAB), the world’s first multi-national soccer governing group [4]. The IFAB was not only responsible for expanding the rules that the FA developed earlier, but also for implementing these rules on a macro level. The thirteen specific rules that the IFAB came up with were officially known as the Laws of the Game and they gave birth to the game the world plays today.
The Laws of the Game have since evolved not only in number, from the thirteen original laws to the current count of seventeen, but also in specificity. The original laws were highly specific and referred to explicit situations occurring during game play, but the seventeen laws of today are more categorical in nature, placing all of the rules, procedures, and regulations of the game in one of the seventeen groups. These seventeen groups are Field of Play, Ball, Number of Players, Players’ Equipment, Referees, Assistant Referees, Duration of the Match, Start and Restart of Play, Ball In and Out of Play, Method of Scoring, Offside, Fouls and Misconduct, Free Kicks, Penalty Kick, Throw-In, Goal Kick, and Corner Kick [5].
Once the Laws of the Game were developed, the popularity of soccer exploded and the game reached parts of the world in which it had never been. As a result of this international expansion, it was quickly realized that the IFAB alone was not adequate enough in governing the spread of soccer outside of the United Kingdom, so the need arose for one single governing body large enough to oversee the sport internationally. The fulfillment of this need came in 1904 with the formation of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) [6]. With the formation of FIFA, the game of soccer was finally able to be contested in an organized manner among different countries all across the world for the right to be called champions.
Throughout the remainder of this paper, the reader will be able to trace the evolution of soccer in the regions of the world and will understand how soccer evolved from being a rudimentary game of minimal skill to the worldwide fixture that it has become today, containing some of the best and most recognizable athletes in all of sports. With the backbone of a 2,000 year history, it doesn’t appear that the world’s sport will be going anywhere anytime soon.
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Works Cited
- "Cuju: Ancient Football Predecessor." China Culture. 2003. Accessed: 14 Mar. 2007 <1. http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_chinaway/2006-08/11/content_84382.htm>.
- Gerhardt, Dr. Wilfried. "History of the Game." Fédération Internationale De Football Association. 2000. Accessed: 14 Mar. 2007 <http://www.fifa.com/en/history/history/0,1283,1,00.html>.
- "Richard Mulcaster." Answers. 2001. Accessed: 14 Mar. 2007 <http://www.answers.com/topic/richard-mulcaster>.
- "History of the FA." The Football Association. 29 Mar. 2004. Accessed: 14 Mar. 2007 <http://www.thefa.com/TheFA/ TheOrganisation/Postings/2004/03/HISTORY_OF_THE_FA.htm>.
- "Laws of the Game 2006." Fédération Internationale De Football Association. July 2006. Accessed: 14 Mar. 2007 <http://www.fifa.com/en/laws/menu.htm>.
- "History of FIFA." Fédération Internationale De Football Association. 2006. Accessed: 25 Mar. 2007 <http://www.fifa.com/en/history/history/0,1283,4,00.html>.