The most popular sport. Which one would you name? Football, of course! Hardly anyone would argue with that. Both adults and children play football in all countries with great interest. Well, those who don’t play are called fans. No one is as devoted to their idols as football fans. But not many people probably know the history of their favorite game. And it was this.

Back in the old days, people competed with each other in various sports. Of course, we know many sports today, so we can’t remember them at once. However, many of them appeared hundreds of years ago. And one of the oldest but most trendy sports is football. As popular as football are gambling games, which were also invented hundreds of years ago. According to Bollywood, slot machines are top-rated to this day.

During major matches on the allvideoslots.com, life in the country almost comes to a standstill. Stops the various work processes. And to see the game come not only men but also the women and even children. Agree; not every sport can bring thousands of fans to one stadium, given that every day in the world is not just one match. So it is not surprising that the administrations of some countries even set days off on those days when essential games are held. And the various football portals are the most visited.

Statistics also state that every person on earth, regardless of gender or age, has tried playing the sport at least once. So even half an hour of this exciting game can give a charge of positive emotions for the whole day. But fans at the stadium spend about as many calories as would be burned after running three kilometers. 

The roots of football go back to antiquity.

In the days when man first realized that round-shaped objects could be rolled and thrown. So a kind of game appeared. But the first football players can be called the South American Indians. They started playing with a rubber ball; the game involved two teams and passed by the established rules.

Game with a ball was popular with the Egyptians in the 2-3 millennium BC. About what can tell, excavations of pharaohs’ tombs found balls.

During the same period, the Chinese popularized such games as chu-chu, tsu-tszu, and zu-nyu. All three games were very similar to football.

Interestingly, football had many names, so in ancient Rome, this game was called harpas-tup; in Greece – fe-ninda, harpanon, episkyros. In Japan, a similar game was called kemari. And this is not a complete list of countries that believe football originated with them.

And yet, England is considered to be the official homeland of football.

• 217 BC, Derby city, the first football match. The game involved more than five hundred people; for two teams to win, according to the rules had to spend feet to the ball throughout the entire city. Such games led to fights and bloodshed, which caused public disapproval. In those days, there was a lot of excitement around football. The rulers of that time forbade the game, which caused fights, quarrels, and even murders among the city’s inhabitants, but fans of the game prohibitions did not help; in 1389, King Richard II announced that the violators there would be given the death penalty.
• It was not until 1603 that the ban on the game was lifted. And the real popularity came football in 1660.
• The first professional football club Sheffield was founded in 1857, and for five years, the club set rules that must be on the field no more than eleven people.
• In 1863, the Football Association was formed in England, which nine years later held its first official game.
• Football gained worldwide popularity in the early twentieth century. On 21.05.1904, the International Football Federation (FIFA) was founded in Paris. Its first president was Robert Guerin.
• Over time, in 1908, football was recognized as an Olympic sport.

It is the history of the beloved and most popular game of our time.

Football is the most popular sport on the planet. The International Football Federation (FIFA) estimates that five billion people worldwide follow the ball game and can call themselves football fans and 265 million people regularly play their favorite sport. So let’s find out what the phenomenon of football is – here are ten reasons for its popularity.

Football is almost a religion.

From the above numbers, it is clear that football unites people as massively as major religious faiths. In every part of the world, you can see people wearing scarves of favorite clubs and T-shirts of national teams, and pubs and fan zones, where popular matches are shown, are always packed to capacity. It is impossible to live in civilization and not learn about the ball game, and it is straightforward to fall in love with it.

You only need a ball to play.

Getting involved is straightforward; you only need a ball to play a football game. It remains to invent a pair of goals from improvised materials – rocks, bottles, backpacks, anything – and gather like-minded people. As interest in the sport grows, the player will get boots and uniforms, but it is optional to begin with; master the basic rules – kick the ball into the opponent’s goal and not touch the ball with your hands.

It’s a team sport.

Last century, the Dutch showed the world the idea of total football; gradually, every club and the national team picked up the philosophy. The bottom line is that the players come to the field in different positions, but all of them are involved in a common cause – the team as a single organism moves the ball to the opponent’s goal and does not let it score on its own. Moreover, working together unites and makes friendships stronger off the field.

Love of football by GEO

Half of the world’s population over the age of 10 can be attributed in one way or another to the army of football lovers, including both fans and sympathizers of the game.

Attitudes to football on different continents

(in % of the population over ten years old):

Latin America

• Active and moderate supporters – 30%
• Passive supporters – 25%
• Sympathizers – 15%
• Neutral – 8%
• Dislike – 22%

Europe (UEFA countries)

• Active and moderate supporters – 23%
• Passive supporters – 19%
• Sympathizers – 16%
• Neutral – 13
• Dislike – 29%

Asia

• Active and moderate supporters – 12%
• Passive supporters – 14%
• Sympathizers – 25%
• Neutral – 25%
• Dislike – 24%

Africa

• Active and moderate supporters – 9%
• Passive supporters – 11%
• Sympathizers – 17%
• Neutral – 40%
• Dislike – 23%

North America

• Active and moderate supporters – 5%
• Passive supporters – 3%
• Sympathizers – 7%
• Neutral – 26%
• Disliked – 59%

In absolute terms, they make up almost 2.9 billion people. It is the best figure in all sports. The other half of humanity treats football neutrally or are opponents of it.