History of Soccer
You might wonder what the entire craze is about a group of men chasing
a ball. Welcome to the game of soccer; a game nations go crazy over and
with a fan following all over the world. The early soccer games were reported
to have been played by the Chinese almost 3000 years ago, there are also
reports of other communities like the Italians, Native American Indians,
Greeks, Persians playing a game which involved kicking and running with
the ball.
The early soccer game did not have any rules and was a violent and
brutal form of the game. The ball was made of different materials
and most often was animal bladder stuffed with hair or rags. It was in
England that Soccer (or football as it is known there) took its true
form from the fourteenth century. Because of its violent nature it was
initially considered as a game played by rowdy and ill bred people and
was frowned upon by the elite. King Edward banned the game since he considered
that it kept his men from practicing archery and other military skills.
Despite all the efforts to suppress Soccer the game still thrived and
people played it. Soccer still continued to be a violent game till the
eighteen century soccer when was introduced into schools and universities.
The first association was formed in 1863 when representatives of clubs
and schools met to define a set of rules for the game to make it more civilized.
The first league was created in 1888 by William McGregor which included
12 clubs and the league games were considered a basis for the professional
games. The game spread from England to other countries like France, Spain,
Netherlands and Denmark and FIFA (Federation Internationale de football
association) the governing body was born in 1904 to arrange professional
matches between countries.
