soccer

                   Soccer

The topic I chose

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball. It is played by 250 million players in over 200 countries, making it the world's most popular sport.^[ The game is played on a rectangular field with a goal at each end. The object of the game is to score by getting the ball into the opposing goal.

The goalkeepers are the only players allowed to touch the ball with their hands or arms while it is in play and then only in their penalty area. Outfield players mostly use their feet to strike or pass the ball, but may use their head or torso to strike the ball instead. The team that scores the most goals by the end of the match wins. If the score is level at the end of the game, either a draw is declared or the game goes into extra time and/or a penalty shootout depending on the format of the competition. The Laws of the Game were originally codified in England by The Football Association in 1863. Association football is governed internationally by the International Federation of Association Football  which organises a World Cup every four years.^[

What behind the invention of soccer?

The earliest known football-type game in Europe was Phaininda, an ancient Greek game that was first recorded in the fourth century BCE byAntiphanes (c.408 to 334 BCE). Dauphin was similar to the Greek game . An image of an Episkyros player taken from an ancient stone carving held by the Acropolis Museum appears on the UEFA European Championship Cup. Athenaeums, writing in 228 AD, stated the Roman ball game Harpist ^[9] was a version of Phaininda. As with pre-codified "Mob Football", the antecedent of all modern football codes, these three games involved more handling the ball than kicking. According to FIFA the competitive game  is the earliest form of football for which there is scientific evidence. Documented evidence of an activity resembling football can be found in the Chinese military manual ecompiled between the third and second century BC. Players were tasked with kicking a ball into a net affixed to bamboo poles, using only their feet, chest, back or shoulders.^[16] Non-competitive games included in Japan,  in Korea and in Australia.

Association football in itself does not have a classical history. Notwithstanding any similarities to other ball games played around the world FIFA have recognized that no historical connection exists with any game played in antiquity outside Europe. The modern rules of association football are based on the mid-19th century efforts to standardize 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 eighth century AD