Association football, more commonly known as football, is a team sport played with a spherical ball. Two teams of eleven players tangle with each other and kick a sphere. More than 250 million people play the sport in over 200 countries, making it the most popular game in the world. During the summer season, the sport can reach its highest spectator numbers of nearly 300 million. Here are the most fascinating facts about the game.
Before the game even started, indigenous Australians played kicking and catching games with stuffed balls. Historians generalised these games as Marn Grook, or “game ball”. There are several accounts of Aboriginal players playing the game as early as 1841, with the earliest written account appearing in Robert Brough-Smyth’s book. In the same year, Richard Thomas, an English missionary to Victoria, recorded the game of the Aboriginals, using possum-skin balls. In addition, there are theories about the earliest origins of Australian rules football.
The first footballs were made from animal bladders. Pig bladders were used, which were inflated with air. Later, leather coverings were added. The first balls were round or oval in shape, and were introduced at the 1851 Great Exhibition in London. In the 1850s, football was still only played in square or rectangular shapes, so the game was called soccer. In fact, it was so popular that the game was banned in London for many years.
The game has many rules and regulations. For example, the neutral zone, which is the area between the defense and the offense, is an area the size of a football. The offensive and defensive zones are separated by an offsetting zone, or a goal line, which is where the game is decided. In addition, offsetting penalties, which are not considered a legitimate foul, result in a repeat down. Similarly, off-tackle plays, in which the ball is carried outside the offensive tackle to the tight end, are also used.
The first footballs were not real balls, but animal bladders. The first footballs were inflated with air, and leather coverings were added. At the 1851 Great Exhibition in London, the game had oval and round shapes, and players were allowed to move offside to prevent it. However, the pig bladders were not the only ones to be used as ball, but they were the only types that were used. This is why modern footballs have such a wide variety of shapes and sizes.
Historically, football games have been played around the world. The earliest form of the game was played in China in the 2nd-3rd centuries B.C., according to FIFA. The game’s rules were very different in medieval Europe. The first version was based on the rules of rugby league, and the second was based on the rules of Australian rules. In other words, it is not a modern sport, but a history of a sport.