Football, soccer or ?The Beautiful Game? - are all names employed to describe the most popular team game in the world. Although the words football and soccer are essentially interchangeable in the UK they have quite different meanings in North America.
In the USA the word 'football' is taken to stand for American Football, a game more akin to the British rugby football, whereas soccer refers to the game known to the rest of the world as football.
It is peculiar that the term soccer is in fact an English slang term of the word association in the same manner that the word ?brekkers? refers to breakfast.
The rules of football were first laid down in 1863 by the Football Association in the UK and these are basically the same rules by which the game is played by today. However they were merely the first try to codify and standardize the widely varying forms of the game being played in 19th century public schools in England.
However the game has a much longer history and references to a game comparable to today?s football can be found in the texts of one William Fitzstephen in the late 12th century. At various times during the medieval period edicts were passed prohibitting the playing of football, largely, it is supposed, because it detracted from the time dedicated to archery practice.
So it could be stated that England?s superiority in France at battles such as Crecy and Agincourt , brought around largely as a result of the success of Welsh and English longbowmen, was a direct result of lack of skill on the football pitch!
Football also fell foul of Puritan censorship and attempts to keep the Sabbath holy as naturally the only time a working man had any free time to indulge in such activity was on a Sunday (the Sabbath)
By the way, the term ?the Beautiful Game as a synonym for Association football has no vast history to it. Its origins are rather uncertain as some claim that it was invented by a Brazilian footballer named Valdir Pereira although the English TV commentator Stuart Hall claims to have coined the phrase in 1958.
From its primitive beginnings football has now grown into the world?s most commonly played team sport. F?d?ration Internationale de Football Association, or FIFA as it is more commonly known , now has 208 member countries where an estimated 200 million plus players habitually play the game.
Such is the effect of football that star players from the major European leagues and particularly the English Premiership are now household names the world over and it is common while driving through a remote jungle village in South East Asia to become confronted by a larger than life size portrait of say, David Beckham, promoting something as mundane to motor oil.
Little did those men meeting at the Freemasons Tavern in Great Queen St,. London on the morning of 26 October 1863 to set the rules of the game know the immense world wide effect their decisions would have.
In the USA the word 'football' is taken to stand for American Football, a game more akin to the British rugby football, whereas soccer refers to the game known to the rest of the world as football.
It is peculiar that the term soccer is in fact an English slang term of the word association in the same manner that the word ?brekkers? refers to breakfast.
The rules of football were first laid down in 1863 by the Football Association in the UK and these are basically the same rules by which the game is played by today. However they were merely the first try to codify and standardize the widely varying forms of the game being played in 19th century public schools in England.
However the game has a much longer history and references to a game comparable to today?s football can be found in the texts of one William Fitzstephen in the late 12th century. At various times during the medieval period edicts were passed prohibitting the playing of football, largely, it is supposed, because it detracted from the time dedicated to archery practice.
So it could be stated that England?s superiority in France at battles such as Crecy and Agincourt , brought around largely as a result of the success of Welsh and English longbowmen, was a direct result of lack of skill on the football pitch!
Football also fell foul of Puritan censorship and attempts to keep the Sabbath holy as naturally the only time a working man had any free time to indulge in such activity was on a Sunday (the Sabbath)
By the way, the term ?the Beautiful Game as a synonym for Association football has no vast history to it. Its origins are rather uncertain as some claim that it was invented by a Brazilian footballer named Valdir Pereira although the English TV commentator Stuart Hall claims to have coined the phrase in 1958.
From its primitive beginnings football has now grown into the world?s most commonly played team sport. F?d?ration Internationale de Football Association, or FIFA as it is more commonly known , now has 208 member countries where an estimated 200 million plus players habitually play the game.
Such is the effect of football that star players from the major European leagues and particularly the English Premiership are now household names the world over and it is common while driving through a remote jungle village in South East Asia to become confronted by a larger than life size portrait of say, David Beckham, promoting something as mundane to motor oil.
Little did those men meeting at the Freemasons Tavern in Great Queen St,. London on the morning of 26 October 1863 to set the rules of the game know the immense world wide effect their decisions would have.
About the Author:
Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is at present concerned with London Olympics 2012 venues. Click a link if you are interested in 2012 London Olympics Volunteers.
No comments:
Post a Comment