Origins of football (soccer)

Day 4,321, 10:40 • Published in Croatia Russia • by DemetriiX

Good day, eWorld.

Today I'll be writing about football, or more precisely the very beginnings of football. So, how did it all start?

Well, according to FIFA, the Chinese competitive game cuju (蹴鞠, literally "kick ball") is the earliest form of football for which there is evidence (206 BC – 220 AD). Cuju players could use any part of the body apart from hands and the intent was kicking a ball through an opening into a net. It was remarkably similar to modern football, though there were some similarities to rugby.

The modern rules of association football are based on the mid-19th century efforts to standardise the widely varying forms of football played in the public schools of England. The history of football in England dates back to at least the 8th century AD.

The world's oldest football competition is the FA Cup, which was founded by C.W. Alcock and has been contested by English teams since 1872. The first official international football match also took place in 1872, between Scotland and England in Glasgow.

Today, football is played at a professional level all over the world. Millions of people regularly go to football stadiums to follow their favourite teams, while billions more watch the game on television or on the internet. A very large number of people also play football on an amateur level. According to a survey conducted by FIFA which was published in 2001, over 240 million people from more than 200 countries regularly play football, making football the highest global televised sport.


If you want to make a suggestion about my next article, feel free to do so in the comments below. Thank you for reading, until next time;

DemetriX