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No body is certain about when soccer was invented. There are many myths surrounding its origin.
Assumption is that it started about 3000 years ago.
It is said that soccer started in Asia as a form of celebration in war victories. War was something usual in olden days. When the war was over, the victorious country would cut the head of the country's leader and kick it around in a symbol of rejoicing and celebrating the victory.
Earliest form of soccer activity was traced as far back as 1004 B. C. in Japan.
In Germany a Museum called Munich Ethnological has a Chinese text explaining games similar to soccer as far as 50 B. C.
Even the Romans played a game that somewhat resembled modern soccer. The early olympic games in Rome had twenty seven players on each side which competed vigorously that majority of them would end up hospitalized after fifty minutes game.
Historians kept records of events such as war, movement in religion and icons who evolved this world. They showed little interest in following the origin of various sports.
No one can really say how soccer spread from Asia to other continents.
King Edward (1307 – 1327) had laws that threatened imprisonment to anyone caught playing soccer. King Henry IV, Henry VIII also passed laws that against the sport. Queen Elizabeth also jailed soccer players with threats to be banned from any church or religious activities.
These laws evidently failed to stop soccer as it is the most played and watched sport in the world.
Now in the twenty first century, this sport is the most popular sport. It is so big that other sports have to be combined to be compared in the same level as soccer. It is watched by millions of people all around the world.
Today soccer is the richest sport as many big companies are involved in it. Player are getting paid millions and they are also worth millions on the transfer market. Soccer has become good business and also good career path for the players.
In the year 2010 the Soccer World Cup is going to be held in a continent called Africa for the first time in over a century of the Soccer Administrative Body FIFA
HISTORY OF WOMAN FOOTBALL
Woman soccer is being mistakenly thought as a recent phenomenon because it gained popularity in the 90's.
Cultural, social and political factors have always held it back.
It started as early as when
the modern men soccer started in the nineteenth (19) century.
The biggest problem that faced women soccer was that soccer is a dangerous sport and not a sport for the weak. This made it difficult for the woman to play as men would protect them by not allowing them to get involved.
That changed in 1863 when
the English Football Association standardized a set of rules that
discouraged violence on the pitch that made it easier for women to
get into soccer.
At it gained popularity it bruised some men's egos who did not believe in woman's soccer.
Like men's soccer when it
began, woman's soccer was also banned by other Football Association.
Today there are woman soccer stars who are world class icons with world woman world player of the year status. Players like: Mia Hamm, Birutt Prinz, Marta Vieira Da Silva and many others.
WOMAN'S SOCCER WORLD CUP HISTORY
The FIFA Woman's World Cup contested has been held on five occasions with the USA earning two championships in 1991 and 1999 in China and USA respectively. Germany also earned two championships in 2003 and 2007 in USA and CHINA respectively. In 1995 it was won by Norway in Sweden.
This tournament has grown by leaps and bounds. In 2003 it was the first time it had featured 26 teams. It is quiet clear that in the future it will have more teams as the woman soccer is going places.
