Who Invented Football Soccer?

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Which country invented football

What is the origin of football? – Modern football originated in Britain in the 19th century. Though “folk football” had been played since medieval times with varying rules, the game began to be standardized when it was taken up as a winter game at public schools.

When was football soccer invented and by who

According to FIFA, modern soccer began in England in 1863. However, the very earliest form of kicking a ball seems to have originated from a Chinese military manual dating back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries called Tsu’ Chu.

Which player invented football?

Here is the story of how the beautiful sport originated – Football was first played in the 1980s, and since then, it has grown to be the most popular sport, with billions of supporters worldwide. There is no prejudice in football, and players of any gender or ethnicity are welcome to participate.

Although there are still some supporters who discriminate against the sport, as time went on, the authority that presently controls the game took strict action in the past. England set the rules for the sport’s inception when it did so in 1863 through the Football Association (FA). Since then, a variety of rules have been established by those in power, including VAR, offside, multiple leagues around the world, and competitions to draw in more spectators.

Although there were no regulations and the game could be played anywhere with the ball at the players’ feet. Football existed before England invented it. And no one could make the claim that they invented this lovely sport except Ebenezer Morley, who is known as the father of the Football Association.

Did China invent football?

What were the early forms of football? – While those associated with football in England take pride in the fact that they can be said to be ‘inventors’ of modern football, other forms have been recorded elsewhere – and much earlier. Indeed, the earliest form of football is understood to be ‘cuju’ which was played in China during the Han dynasty from 206 BC to 220 AD.

1. ‘Cuju’ translates literally as ‘kick ball’ and the aim of the game was to kick the ball into a net.
2. Like later forms of the game in England, cuju outlawed the use of the hands.
3. In ancient Greece, too, a game similar to football existed which was called ‘episkyros’.
4. The name of the game means ‘common ball’ and it involved two teams of players (with numbers comparable to football) with one ball.

Notably, though, players were allowed to use their hands. ‘Episkyros’ was frequently violent in nature and it is believed to be related somewhat to the later ancient Roman game ‘harpastum’, which means ‘carried away’. So we can see that a lot of different football games spawned across the world and changed over time.

232826 Votes Results will be shared soon.

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• 16% Arsenal
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232826 Votes : Who invented football? Where and when the beautiful game was born | Goal.com UK

What is origin of soccer

The history of soccer According to the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), football – or soccer as it is known in North America – is played by upwards of 240 million people worldwide. Records trace the origins of the sport back more than 2,000 years ago to ancient China, Greece and Rome, where the ‘ball’ was made of rock or animal hide stuffed with hair.

• There have even been suggestions it dates even further back to old Mesoamerican cultures – but ‘football’ or ‘soccer’ as we know it today has its roots in 19th century England.
• From England, the idea of football spread to Europe and across the Atlantic.
• Two schoolteachers, August Hermann and Konrad Koch, introduced the game to Germany circa 1874.

Immigrants, meanwhile, are thought to have brought soccer to the United States. Through the history of soccer we have seen multitudes of stars be born. Jadon Sancho is one of world footballs most talented players of now and the future. – DFL The first football association was formed in England in 1863. Rules were established – but continued to change – and the size and weight of the match-ball standardised.

• Crucially, carrying the ball with the hands was outlawed: association football (soccer) and rugby became two separate entities.
• Football continued to undergo rapid development into the 1900s, accelerated by industrialisation.
• Public school teams soon became the minority following the emergence of factory and other work-based clubs.

The best players received monetary incentives, and tickets were sold to the public – mainly members of the working-class – for matches. Domestic leagues became commonplace around the world – the English Football League being the first professional division.

In Germany, football was played at an amateur level until 1949, when semi-professional leagues were introduced. The country’s first professional division, the Bundesliga, started in 1963/64. Forty-six clubs from the former West Germany applied for admission to the new league. Sixteen were selected based on their sporting track record, economic criteria and representation of the various sub-regional leagues.

Until 2001, the Bundesliga was directly under the auspices of the Deutscher Fußball-Bund (DFB or German Football Association). This changed with the formation of the Deutsche Fußball-Liga (DFL or German Football League). The very-first season of Bundesliga football took place in from 1963 to 1964. – imago sportfotodienst/imago sportfotodienst Early soccer leagues in the US mostly adopted the name ‘football’ for their activities, but confusion between American football and association football resulted in the term ‘soccer’ being used to describe the latter in the 1910s and early 1920s.

Two professional soccer leagues were started in 1967, the United Soccer Association and the National Professional Soccer League, which merged to form the North American Soccer League in 1968. Interest in soccer within the United States continued to grow and, as part of the United States’ bid to host the 1994 FIFA World Cup, US Soccer pledged to create a professional outdoor league.

Major League Soccer duly launched in 1996. Latter-day continental club tournaments have existed, in various guises, for many years. Europe’s UEFA Champions League and the Americas’ CONCACAF Champions League are perhaps the best known. Interleague club competition can be traced back as far as the late 19th century, but international club tournaments are a relatively new concept.

• In 2000, the FIFA Club World Cup was born, a tournament between the winners of the six continental confederations, as well as the host nation’s league champions.
• Since 2005, it has become an annual event.
• In the late 19th century, only a few national football teams existed, England and Scotland among them.

Germany has been represented in international football competitions since 1908, while the first US national soccer team was constituted in 1885. Football became an International Olympics Committee-recognised sport in 1900, but it wasn’t until 1930 that FIFA – football’s world governing body – decided to stage their own international tournament, the World Cup. The FIFA World Cup played in the USA in 1994 was a ground-breaking moment for soccer in the United States. – imago The UEFA European Football Championship, more commonly known as the Euros, is the primary association football competition contested by the senior men’s national teams of the members of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), determining the continental champion of Europe.

• It is held every four years, in the even-numbered year between World Cups.
• The first edition took place in 1960.
• The CONCACAF Gold Cup, the main association football competition of the men’s national football teams governed by The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF), determining the continental champion of North America, Central America, and the Caribbean, is staged every two years.

Today 211 national associations are members of FIFA, football’s world governing body. The world regions are divided into six confederations: Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF), Asian Football Confederation (AFC), UEFA, CONCACAF, Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), and Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol (CONMEBOL). Germany have won the European Championships three times, the last of which came in England in 1996. – imago : The history of soccer

Was football invented in England or Italy

The history of football (soccer) – Football (or soccer as the game is called in some parts of the world) has a long history. Football in its current form arose in England in the middle of the 19th century. But alternative versions of the game existed much earlier and are a part of the football history.

Was football originally soccer?

Football or soccer – which is right? – Technically, the words football and soccer are both correct. They describe the same sport which was codified by the Football Association in 1863 and the words can be considered synonyms. The word ‘soccer’ is actually a British export, which was used for many years before the globalisation of football.

Where is soccer most popular in the world?

What is soccer? – Soccer is a team sport played by a team of 11 players against another team of 11 players on a field. The team has one designated goalkeeper and 10 outfield players. Outfield players are usually specialised in attacking or defending or both.

A team is typically split into defenders, midfielders and forwards, though there is no restriction on players moving anywhere on the pitch. It is known as soccer in North America, but is called football in most of the rest of the world. Its full name is Association Football. What does a soccer ball look like? A soccer ball is round, and must measure between 27-28″ in circumference and weigh between 14 and 16oz.

How many countries play soccer? Soccer is the world’s most popular sport, played by over 250 million people in more than 200 countries. It is particularly popular in Europe, Central and South America, and Africa, though has a growing influence in North America and Asia.

1. What does a soccer pitch look like? The game is played on a rectangular field called a pitch with a goal at either end.
2. The size of the pitch for international adult category matches can be between 110-120 yards long and 70-80 yards wide.
3. The lines at either end of the pitch are called the goal lines, the lines perpendicular to the goal lines are called the touchlines,

The playing surface is usually grass. Artificial surfaces are very rarely used at professional level. What is the aim of soccer? The object of the game is to move the ball up the pitch and beyond the goal line of your opponent’s goal. A standard game lasts 90 minutes, split into two halves of 45 minutes.

The goal has two upright posts and a horizontal bar connecting them known as the crossbar and is placed in the middle of the goal line. For competitive games, a net is connected to the posts and crossbar to stop the ball after it has crossed the goal line. Any of a team’s 11 players on the pitch can score a goal, which adds one to the team’s total.

The team also get a goal if an opponent sends the ball into their own goal by mistake.

• The team that scores the most goals in the 90 minutes wins the game.
• Regular season games end at 90 minutes, even if the scoreline is level.
• In domestic cup competitions and the knockout stages of international club and national team competitions, an additional 30 minutes – known as extra-time – is played, split into two halves of 15 minutes.

If the scores are still level after extra-time, a penalty shootout takes place. Here, five players from each team take turns to score. If the scores are still level after that, the team’s remaining players step up for sudden death until there is a winner.

1. Does soccer have post-season play-offs? Most domestic soccer leagues do not have a post-season play-off round like the major sports in the United States and Canada.
2. The team that finishes at the top of the table after the end of the season is usually crowned champion after each team has played each other at home and away (on the road).

Most league competitions give winning teams three points. A tie – or a draw – earns both sides one point. Losing teams receive no points. Some domestic leagues do use playoffs to decide which teams are demoted – or relegated – from a league, such as the Bundesliga in Germany.

1. The English Premier League has a play-off to decide which team is promoted to the top flight from the second division.
2. What are the rules of soccer? The sport has 17 rules known as the Laws of the Game, which were laid down and are governed by the International Football Association Board (IFAB).
3. The laws are designed to be universal, but slight modifications are made to take into account factors such as age, gender and disabilities.

What is a foul in soccer? In the team of 11 players, 10 are known as ‘outfield’ players, and are forbidden by the Laws of the Game from touching the ball with their hands or arms. Only the team’s goalkeeper is allowed to use their hands, and only inside their penalty area.

1. Handling the ball deliberately, tripping an opponent, and pushing an opponent are punished either by a direct free-kick – meaning the attacking team can attempt to score immediately when the referee signals for play to continue – that is taken from the position where the foul occurred or a penalty if the infringement occurs inside the penalty box of the fouling player’s team.
2. Other fouls are punished by an indirect free-kick, which means at least one other member of the attacking team must touch the ball before a goal can be scored.
3. Watch: Five things you might not know about set-pieces

What is a penalty kick in soccer? The penalty area is also referred to as the 18-yard box, The goalkeeper can only use their hands to touch the ball inside their own penalty area. Any defending player who breaks a Law of the Game – commits a foul, as it is known – inside the penalty area, gives the opposition a penalty kick.

• A penalty sees the ball placed on the penalty spot 12 yards from the centre of the goal.
• Any player, including the goalkeeper, can take the penalty while the opposing goalkeeper tries to stop the ball going into the goal.
• Only the taker and the defending goalkeeper are permitted inside the penalty area.

What happens when the ball goes out of play in soccer? If the ball crosses the goal line but does not go into the goal, and was last touched by a player from the defending team, a corner kick is awarded to the attacking team and is taken from the corner of the pitch nearest to where the ball left the playing area.

1. If an attacker last touched the ball, a goal-kick is awarded with the ball placed on the edge of the six-yard box (the smaller rectangle inside the penalty area) and must be kicked by the defending team, traditionally by the goalkeeper.
2. If the ball crosses the touchline, a throw-in is awarded to the team which did not touch the ball last.

This is the only time outfield players are permitted to touch the ball with their hands. They must return the ball into play while holding it with both hands and with both feet on the ground. Failure to do so results in a foul throw, meaning the other team are given the throw.

What do soccer players wear? The goalkeeper must be designated before the start of the game, and wears a different colour shirt, shorts and socks to their teammates. All outfield players on the same team wear the same shirt, shorts and socks, known collectively as a strip, All players wear boots which have studs or cleats to improve grip on the pitch.

Headgear is not a required piece of basic equipment with all players usually wearing only shin guards and no other form of protective padding. Goalkeepers wear specifically designed gloves in order to improve their grip on the ball. What does a soccer referee do? A referee is appointed before each game and enforces the Laws of the Game.

They have two assistant referees – one placed on the touchlines on opposite sides of the pitch and in opposite halves. A fourth official is present for professional games. The referee can punish foul play by awarding a free-kick against the team of the offending player. If the foul occurs in the penalty area, a penalty kick is given to the attacking team.

If the attacking team commits a foul in the penalty area, a free-kick is given to the defending team. The referee signals to players using a whistle, and is the only official inside the playing area. What does a yellow card and a red card mean in soccer? There is no limit on how many fouls a player can make as in basketball, nor is there a penalty box as in ice hockey.

• If a player commits what the referee thinks is a serious infringement, the referee can show the player a yellow or red card.
• A yellow card is a warning known as a booking, and if the same player commits a offence that the referee thinks deserves a second yellow card, that player is also shown a red card.

If a player is shown a red card, they must leave the pitch immediately. A player can be shown a red card without having first been shown a yellow card if the referee thinks the rule infringement was serious enough. If a goalkeeper is sent off, a substitute goalkeeper can be sent on to replace them, but an outfield player must be taken off as part of the exchange so that the team plays with 10 players.

1. A team can have up to four players sent off and still finish the match.
2. However, referees are instructed to stop matches prematurely if a team is reduced to fewer than seven players.
3. What is VAR? In recent seasons, referees have been helped further by Video Assistant Referees (VAR).
4. Previously, television replays were not used to help referees make a decision.

Now, the referee has one or two colleagues, usually away from the stadium, who review four specific situations: cases of mistaken identity for yellow/red cards, potential infringements in the build-up to a goal (fouls or offside), direct red card decisions, and penalty decisions.

• Goalline technology is also used to tell referees if the ball has crossed the goal line.
• The whole of the ball must be over the goal line for a goal to be awarded.
• How many substitutes can be used in soccer? Typically for a professional game, seven substitutes, usually including one goalkeeper, are named at the start of the match on what is called the bench.

Competition rules will specify exactly how many players outside the starting 11 can be named in the matchday squad. However, only three substitutions are allowed to be used inside the 90-minute duration of the match, regardless of injuries. If a game goes to extra-time, most competitions now allow a fourth substitute to be made.

• Players are usually replaced because of injury, tiredness, or a change in tactics.
• Who controls soccer? Football is governed at a global level by FIFA, the International Federation of Football Associations, based in Switzerland.
• It has six regional confederations attached to it: the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), the Confederation of African Football (CAF), the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF), the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC), and the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL).

Each country has their own national football association, such as the English Football Association in England, known as the FA, or US Soccer in the USA. Each national association organises competitions between clubs associated with them. The most renowned are the ‘top five’ European leagues: the German Bundesliga, the English Premier League, La Liga in Spain, Italy’s Serie A, and Ligue 1 in France.

• Each regional confederation organises competitions between clubs and also national teams.
• The most well known and lucrative club competition in the world is the UEFA Champions League.
• It is held annually and features the European teams that have finished highest in their respective national leagues.
• UEFA also organise the UEFA EURO, a European championship held every four years, which features national teams that have won through in the qualifying process.

What is the soccer World Cup? FIFA organise the World Cup every four years, two years after/before the Olympic Games and UEFA’s EUROs. It is open to national teams from around the planet. It has most recently been contested between 32 finalists, though that number will increase to 48 for the 2026 competition to be held in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

Did England or China invent football

Fire, fighting and robots – the world’s weirdest football games – You can hear those words on a loop at the entrance of the China‘s Linzi Football Museum, which opened in the Linzi district of Zibo, Shandong province in September, 2005. Cuju was also listed as one of China’s first batch of intangible cultural heritages in 2006.

There have been attempts to revive the game in recent years, with AC Milan star Kaka playing outside the National Stadium in Beijing in 2013 and Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva having a go in a Lunar New Year video in 2019. In between, cuju’s most notable appearance was in the state visit to Britain of Chinese president Xi Jinping in 2015.

Xi presented British prime minister David Cameron a cuju statue and gave the National Football Museum in Manchester a replica cuju ball. Chinese President Xi Jinping (second left), accompanied by British Prime Minister David Cameron (second), visits the National Football Museum in Manchester in 2015. Photo: Xinhua “While England is the birthplace of the modern game as we know it, we have always acknowledged that the origins of the game lie in China,” National Football Museum director Kevin Moore told Xi and Cameron as he showed them around the museum, as reported by the BBC.

Who played football first in history?

What were the early forms of football? – While those associated with football in England take pride in the fact that they can be said to be ‘inventors’ of modern football, other forms have been recorded elsewhere – and much earlier. Indeed, the earliest form of football is understood to be ‘cuju’ which was played in China during the Han dynasty from 206 BC to 220 AD.

1. ‘Cuju’ translates literally as ‘kick ball’ and the aim of the game was to kick the ball into a net.
2. Like later forms of the game in England, cuju outlawed the use of the hands.
3. In ancient Greece, too, a game similar to football existed which was called ‘episkyros’.
4. The name of the game means ‘common ball’ and it involved two teams of players (with numbers comparable to football) with one ball.

Notably, though, players were allowed to use their hands. ‘Episkyros’ was frequently violent in nature and it is believed to be related somewhat to the later ancient Roman game ‘harpastum’, which means ‘carried away’. So we can see that a lot of different football games spawned across the world and changed over time.

232826 Votes Results will be shared soon.

• 48% Manchester City
• 16% Arsenal
• 13% Manchester United
• 13% Liverpool
• 5% Chelsea
• 6% Other

232826 Votes : Who invented football? Where and when the beautiful game was born | Goal.com India

Who invented football before England?

Ancient times Of these ancient games, the most relevant to football in its modern incarnation is a Chinese game called Tsu-Chu which means ‘kicking the ball’, with records dating back to the Han Dynasty, 206 B.C. – 220 A.D. The game involved kicking a small leather ball into a net strung between two bamboo poles.

Did Scotland invent football?

After 150 years the truth: Scotland invented football In the days before political correctness it used to be said that, while the Irish could take pride in the invention of the lavatory seat, it was the English who had come up with the bright idea of carving a hole in it.

When the so-called Football Association’ was formed at the instigation of Ebenezer Morley, a young solicitor from Hull who lived by the Thames in south-west London because rowing was among his sporting interests, what he proposed would be seen now as a basis for rugby with extra violence.Morley’s draft laws provided that a player could not only run with the ball in his hands but that opponents could stop him by charging, holding, tripping or hacking (kicking him on the shins) and initially a majority of the delegates at the historic meetings in the Freemasons Tavern agreed.Fortunately progressive elements rebelled and, after a more civilised code emerged, the delegate from the Blackheath club – outlaw hacking, he had presciently warned, and such would be the loss of “the pluck of the game” that the French might even prevail at it – harrumphed away, eventually to help to form the Rugby Football Union.

However, the English game was still mainly a question of head-down dribbling and “backing up” (by colleagues anxious to seize what was later dubbed the “second ball”). This was not a game which would have conquered the world with its beauty. And then the Scots had the notion of artfully distributing the ball among the players.

It started with young men, from Perthshire and the Highlands mainly, who gathered at Queen’s Park in Glasgow in 1867. They obtained a copy of the FA laws and amended them to conform with an almost scientific blend of dribbling and passing. When they invented passing, these lads invented football. Not the heir to Shrove Tuesday scrimmages but the football that was to charm every continent.

Far from being an English game, it was one that was conceived to confound the English because the Scots, being generally smaller than their opponents in football’s oldest international rivalry, could hardly afford to take them on physically. Thus we had the Scots’ “combination game”, the original pattern from which everything worthwhile in football – from the mid-European flair that culminated in England’s humbling by Hungary at the old Wembley in 1953, to the 1970 Brazilians, to the Barcelona of Pep Guardiola – has been designed.

It even worked for the Scots for a while. They were the original world champions, albeit unofficially, for although the first international, with Queen’s Park representing Scotland in Glasgow in 1872, ended goalless and England won the next in London, the Scots won 10 and drew three of the ensuing 14.

Then the Football League started. Preston North End, dominated by Scots, became its first champions in 1889. Indeed they did the Double. The next club to do it were Aston Villa eight years later. Villa had been transformed by a Scottish manager, George Ramsay, who had taught them to pass – their previous approach he later described as “a dash at the man and a big kick at the ball” – and a great Scottish player, Archie Hunter.

Ramsay and Hunter inspired Villa to take five of the last seven championships of the 19th century and were the most successful of the imports from north of the border, being hailed all over England as footballing academics come to educate the natives: the “Scotch professors”. Even now the memory of outstanding Scots – at least in management – has hardly faded and right up to the prime of Kenny Dalglish, arguably the last of the professors (although a counter-argument in favour of Gary McAllister would be accepted), the country led its big brother in the ancient international series.

England did not move ahead in terms of overall wins until goals from Bryan Robson and Gordon Cowans sank the Scots at Wembley in 1983. But six years later, when the series was abandoned, it was amid mutual relief: the English were bored and the Scots, by now struggling with the likes of Luxembourg and Cyprus, feared increasing humiliation.

What is the 2nd oldest sport

Top 5 Oldest Sports in the World Top 5 Oldest Sports in the World Sports vary as far and wide as the human body is able to push through its physical limits, ultimately resulting in different variants of the same sport, each with its fair share of records and achievements. Archery The use of the bow and arrow is about as primitive human civilization gets, once it has established its place in the macro ecosystem and started looking for ways to survive and improve their way of life. The oldest records of archery practices date back to 20.000 years BC, and mainly consist of cave carvings of the actual use of such skills for survival. Wrestling Research so far has shown that wrestling as a sport has come to date back to the ancient fighters of the primitive human race, somewhere around 150 centuries BC. Records of this kind were first discovered in France, in the carvings, while newer evidence are only half the time frame, dating back from 7000 BC to 6000 BC and later on. Running Not only is running the second oldest sports activity in the world, it is also the first Olympic sport to have a written record off its event, dating back to 776 BC. With four different sub-disciplines explicitly stated back then, there is no doubt that running attracted enough audiences that today, you can bet on running events on any betting site that allows, or in any betting shop. Javelin Throwing The practice of throwing a javelin dates back from the same century as running, and even though there aren’t too many ways to offer an alternative design, javelin throwing has retained its practice as an Olympic and thus international sports discipline. Polo Polo as a sport is unique in itself, as there is hardly any other similar sports discipline to compare it when analyzing common origins. Hockey has been known to look slightly alike a game of polo, but the inclusion of horses, taller sticks, a wooden ball and the goal that polo players are supposed to hit in order to score, are nothing alike a different type of sport activity.

What is man’s oldest sport?

The Oldest Sport By Bob Dellinger Director Emeritus National Wrestling Hall of Fame Wrestling, mankind’s oldest and most basic form of recreational combat, traces its origins back to the dawn of civilization. Carvings and drawings estimated to be between 15,000 and 20,000 years old, found in caves in southern Europe, illustrate wrestlers in hold and leverage positions.

Sumerians cast wrestlers in bold relief on stone slabs at least 5,000 years ago, antedating all other artifacts of ancient sport. A small bronze statuette of wrestlers, apparently used as a vase, was unearthed in the ruins of Khafaji, 200 miles from Baghdad. This artifact, dated 2600 B.C., now is housed in the Iraqi national museum.

Wrestling also reached a high stage of development in Egypt, where paintings of wrestlers dating to approximately 2500 B.C. have been found in lavish tombs of kings and other high officials. No archaeological excavation or historical document has depicted wrestling so completely and so technically correct as have drawings in the temple-tombs of Beni Hasan in middle kingdom Egypt.

Hundreds of drawings there demonstrate clearly that most contemporary wrestling holds were performed in ancient Egypt. In fact, the maneuvers depicted are more closely related to the present-day sport than are those of such modern variants as sumo, kokh, glima, et al. Wrestling matches were described by the Greek poet Homer, and wrestling became the final and decisive event of the pentathlon, the five-fold contest of the Greek public games.

The poet Pindar describes how the gods Zeus and Cronus wrestled for possession of the universe along the river Alpheus at Olympia. Zeus was victorious, and Olympic festivals dating from the Eighth Century B.C. commemorated his triumph. Wrestling was the most popular event in the ancient Greek Games, and lists of Olympic wrestling winners have been recorded since 708 B.C.

One of the most famous of the Greek wrestlers was the philosopher, Plato, who won many prizes for wrestling as a young man. His real name was Aristocles, but because of his success, he was given the name Plato, meaning “broad shoulders.” The greatest popularity of the Olympic Games was during the period of the “five good emperors” in Rome, around 125 A.D.

With the expansion of the Roman Empire, the contests spread across Europe. It was in this era that the “catch-as-catch-can” style — forerunner of modern freestyle — developed. The style was completely free, with no holds barred on any part of the person or garments of the opponent.

• During the Napoleonic period, the French developed a style which today is identified as Greco-Roman.
• No hold on or with the legs is permitted, nor is tripping allowed.
• Wrestling also has been popular in the Orient for at least 20 centuries.
• Syndicated feature columnist L.M.
• Boyd has stated that the Kingdom of Japan was wagered on the outcome of a wrestling match in 858 A.D.

Two distinctive styles emerged in Japan, sumo and judo, and both remain immensely popular today. In Europe, during the Middle Ages, wrestling was considered a knightly skill. In 1520, at the Field of Cloth-of-Gold, Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France were provoked by strong feelings while watching their countrymen compete.

Henry challenged Francis and reportedly was thrown by him. In both North and South America, Indians included wrestling in their sport activities long before Christopher Columbus set foot in the New World. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and seven other presidents of the United States were acknowledged as skilled wrestlers.

Wrestling clearly has no single point of origin. More than 160 traditional or “folk-lore” variants are recognized by the International Amateur Wrestling Federation. In the Soviet Union, for example, it was a practice to organize spectacular championships and exhibitions of folk-lore wrestling, such as “tchidaoba” from Georgia, “kokh” from Armenia, “gulech” from Azerbaidjan, “kurach” from Uzbekistan, “kurek” from Kazakhstan, et al.

• Great Britain developed styles referred to by the parts of the country in which they originated: Cumberland, Westmoreland, Cornwall and Lancashire.
• In the Cumberland style, if the starting hold is lost, or if any part of the body except the feet touches the ground, the contestant loses.
• The Cornwall-and-Devon style starts from the upright position and ground wrestling is prohibited.

In Switzerland, a popular style is “schwingen” where special pants are used, with a strong belt that is gripped at the start of the contest. A style called “glima” is popular in Iceland, and the wrestlers there are equipped with belts for grasping. Japanese sumo, perhaps the best known and most stylized of all the folk-lore styles of wrestling, determines a winner when the opponent is thrown to the ground or forced outside the boundaries of the mat.

There are no weight classes in sumo, and the contestants often attain 350 to 450 pounds. Modern wrestling is a highly instinctive sport that requires strength, alertness, resiliency and, above all, agility and quickness. Wrestling best medicine is for best blood flow. Olympic and World championships are conducted in two separate styles, freestyle and Greco-Roman.

International competition is governed by the F?d?ration Internationale des Luttes Associ?s (FILA). The eight weight classes for men range from 54 kilograms (119.05 pounds) to 125 kg (275.58 lbs). Freestyle competition also is conducted for women. USA Wrestling (originally the U.S.

Wrestling Federation) is the national governing body and international delegate for the sport in this country. As part of its responsibilities for education and for promotion of the sport, USA Wrestling conducts national championships each year in folkstyle, freestyle, Greco-Roman and women’s wrestling, presents an extensive series of clinics on coaching, officiating and sport medicine, and produces a large number of books, films and video tapes.

As many as 70 regional and national tournaments are conducted annually for various age groups starting at age 9. Such competition usually is wrestled under international rules, subject to modifications adopted for the health and safety of young wrestlers.

Some of these events determine the lineup of United States teams competing against national teams of other countries. Today’s wrestling mat is 4 to 6 cm (approximately 2 inches) thick and made of a foam core plastic with a smooth, bonded cover that is easy to clean with disinfectant. The center wrestling area is 7 meters in diameter and is surrounded by a 1-meter wide band called the “passivity zone.” Effective with the 1989 season, each bout now consists of a single 5-minute competition, with no rest period.

The bout starts with the wrestlers on their feet, facing each other 1 meter apart. If the wrestlers step into the “passivity zone” with no action in progress, they are returned to the center for a fresh start. Each bout is directed by three officials — a referee, judge and mat chairman.

• At least two officials must agree on any decision.
• The 5-minute bout can be cut short by a fall, by one wrestler opening a lead of 10 or more points over his opponent, or by disqualification for illegal holds or for misconduct.
• A fall occurs when a wrestler’s shoulders are pinned to the mat for one-half second.

The winner of a bout which lasts the full 5 minutes is determined by points awarded for successful execution of specific maneuvers — such as takedowns (bringing the opponent to the mat from a standing position), reversals, near falls (turning the opponent’s shoulders toward the mat at an angle of less than 90 degrees), and a variety of throws to the mat.

• To be credited with a victory, a wrestler must have scored at least 3 points by the end of the regulation period.
• If he has not, or if the score is tied at any number, the bout goes into a 3-minute overtime period.
• If either wrestler earns a victory after the start of the overtime, the bout ends immediately.

If neither has qualified by the end of the extra 3 minutes, the officials choose the winner. Once a wrestler has taken his opponent to the mat, he is given the opportunity to continue in “par terre” position (on the ground) and to attempt to turn his opponent’s shoulders into a “danger” position — past 90 degrees.

• If it becomes evident to the officials that he will not succeed quickly, the wrestlers are returned to the standing position.
• No points are scored merely for controlling the opponent.
• The rules strictly forbid tactics intended to injure the opponent, such as hair-pulling, scratching, grabbing the throat, twisting the fingers or any joints, or driving an elbow or knee into the opponent’s back or abdomen.

In recent years, largely through the efforts of Milan Ercegan of Yugoslavia, president of FILA, the concept of “total wrestling” has become the guideline for international competition. The bout has been shortened, but constant aggressive activity is required, or the passive wrestler is penalized.

• The element of “risk” is the keynote of the new philosophy — the wrestler must take risks to score, particularly if his opponent is ahead on points.
• Of the two styles of international wrestling, freestyle is by far the more popular in the United States, because it more closely resembles the folkstyle practiced in our scholastic and collegiate programs.

Another international style, sombo, has not yet been accepted as an Olympic sport, although world championships have been conducted for several years. Sombo derives its name from a Russian acronym standing for “self defense without weapons.” A blend of wrestling and judo, it draws rules and participants from both.

• Sombo, like judo, now is recognized as an entirely separate sport rather than as a form of wrestling.
• In freestyle, a wrestler may attack his opponent’s legs, as with single-leg and double-leg tackles, or he may apply other holds below the waist, such as the fireman’s carry or the crotch lift.
• He also may use his own legs to attack, as with trips and some types of scissors holds.

The legs also may be used by the defensive wrestler to counter-attack or to block certain lifts. Such use of the legs also is an integral part of American folkstyle wrestling. The Greco-Roman style, on the contrary, forbids all use of the legs in attack or defense.

• Points are scored for takedowns (1 point), reversals (1), and near falls (2).
• A near fall, or tilt, is scored by turning an opponent’s back to the mat at an angle of less than 90 degrees, or by touching both his shoulders to the mat for an instant.
• If both shoulders are held to the mat for one-half second, it is a fall and the bout is over.) If, from a standing position, a wrestler throws his opponent directly into a near fall, the action is worth 3 points.

If such a maneuver is performed with a spectacular, high-arching throw, it is awarded 5 points. Holding the opponent in a danger position for a five-second count earns an additional point. Except for the ban on use of the legs by either wrestler, the rules for freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling are identical.

But that limitation brings great differences in philosophy and style. Much of the scoring results from spectacular, arching throws since a defensive wrestler being lifted may resist only by shifting his weight and balance, rather than by blocking with his legs or by grasping his opponent’s legs. The rules for collegiate and scholastic wrestling in the United States vary sharply from those of international freestyle, placing emphasis on control of the opponent rather than on physical dominance.

A fall must be held for one second (collegiate) or two seconds (scholastic). Requirements for near fall points are much more demanding. Points are awarded for takedowns and reversals, but rather than award bonus points for spectacular throws, they are prohibited.

• Escaping from an opponent is a scoring maneuver, and merely controlling him can earn a point for time advantage.
• As in international wrestling, the folkstyle rules strictly forbid brutality and emphasize the physical safety of the wrestlers.
• The evolution of the sport of wrestling is a continuing process.

Over the years, the development of “folkstyle” rules in the United States and freestyle rules around the world followed distinctly separate tracks, converging only occasionally when proponents of one style discovered something worthwhile in the rules of the other.

Neither style of wrestling had a scoring system through the first four decades of the Twentieth Century. Art Griffith, the second great collegiate coach at Oklahoma State, developed a points system that finally gained acceptance in 1941. A year later, collegiate wrestling moved out of its raised, roped (boxing) ring and onto open mats laid flat on the floor of a gymnasium.

These were the two most significant rules changes of the century, although a host of minor revisions would follow. For nearly two more decades, until the 1960 Olympic Games, international wrestling was scored in secret by three judges, who signaled their decisions by raising colored paddles at the end of the bout.

1. Dr. Albert de Ferrari, a San Francisco dentist who rose to the rank of vice president of the international federation, led the fight for a visible scoring system.
2. He also campaigned successfully for the “controlled fall” rule, which recognized a pin only when the offensive wrestler had done something to cause it.

As with American folkstyle, the international rules-makers also seem infected by a desire to tinker with the rules, often guided by what would provide the greatest advantage for their own countries. Obviously, however, American methods of training and conditioning, and the development of new techniques, influenced the European power brokers of international wrestling.

1. Such influence was a two-way street, as success in the international styles led to changes in the Americans’ approach to wrestling.
2. But with all the changes, it only takes a glance at drawings from the tombs of Beni-Hasan more than 4,000 years ago to underscore the adage: “The more things change, the more they remain the same.” Note: This work draws its title from a series of columns by wrestling historian Donald A.

Sayenga. Much of this information was obtained from The Magnificent Scufflers by Charles Morrow Wilson © 1959, and from A Pictorial History of Wrestling by Graeme Kent © 1968. : The Oldest Sport

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With breaking now becoming an Olympic sport, here’s what you need to know.

Who was the first footballer to play football?

Fergus Suter – Wikipedia Scottish stonemason and footballer Fergus Suter Personal informationDate of birth 21 November 1857Place of birth, ScotlandDate of death 31 July 1916 (1916-07-31) (aged 58)Place of death, EnglandSenior career*Years Team Apps ( Gls ) 1876–1878 1878–1880 1880–1889 *Club domestic league appearances and goals Fergus Suter (21 November 1857 – 31 July 1916) was a Scottish stonemason and in the early days of the game.

Who came up with soccer instead of football?

World Cup 2022: Is it soccer? Is it football? Does it matter? In the anthem “Tokoh Taka”, US rapper Nicki Minaj proclaims: “Some say football, some say soccer.” While many fans around the world find the term “soccer” strange, if not objectionable, that’s what Americans – as well as, South Africans and some Australians and Irish – call the sport.

• As the took on England in their second match in Qatar, the familiar football-versus-soccer debate was reigniting off the pitch.
• Ahead of the US-England game on Friday, and memes stressing that “it’s not soccer” flooded social media, and a shared by the publication Sports Illustrated showed US fans chanting, “It’s called soccer”.
• Here, Al Jazeera looks at the origins of the discrepancy in what the two English-speaking countries call the sport.

It may sound counterintuitive, but the term “soccer” was not originally American. Like the modern sport itself, the name originated in Great Britain. As authors Silke-Maria Weineck and Stefan Szymanski explain in their book, It’s Football, Not Soccer (And Vice Versa), the formal name of the sport is “association football”.

• British university students in the late 19th century nicknamed it “soccer”, a twist on the second syllable of “association”.
• But while British people stopped using the nickname decades ago, Americans stuck to it.
• In an interview with Al Jazeera, Szymanski, a professor of sport management at the University of Michigan, stressed that as much as Britons may loathe the term “soccer”, its origins are indisputable.

He tracked its use in the United Kingdom well into the second half of the 20th century.

1. For example, the 1973 autobiography of the legendary Manchester United coach is titled Soccer at the Top: My Life in Football.
2. Szymanski has a theory to explain the decline of the word “soccer” in England: “anti-Americanism”.
3. “When it became widely known in the UK that Americans called it soccer, it suddenly becomes what we call an ‘exile word’ in British English,” he said.
4. Throughout sports history, the term “football” has been used to describe several sports involving a ball and running, including rugby, which is formally called rugby football.

As association football and rugby football were taking shape in the UK in the 1800s, another football genre was developing in North America, combining elements from both sports. It came to be known as gridiron football. Several versions of gridiron football would spring up, including Canadian football, but became the dominant one.

• So as the world largely moved on from the word “soccer”, for Americans, another sport had taken the honour of being called football.
• “Calling soccer ‘football’ would invite confusion” in the US, said G Edward White, a law professor at the University of Virginia and author of Soccer in American Culture: The Beautiful Game’s Struggle for Status.
• White pointed to gridiron football’s prevalence in many US institutions, where it is “played extensively in high schools, colleges and the professional “.

With the Hispanic population among the fastest-growing demographics in the US, an increasing number of Americans know the sport not as “soccer” but as “futbol”. The Spanish word is becoming more popular among non-Spanish speakers as well. But efforts to rebrand “soccer” are still a long way from making a meaningful dent in the term’s use.

• After all, the official name of the American team playing in Qatar is the “United States Men’s National Soccer Team”.
• Szymanski dismissed the entire football-soccer debate as silly.
• In countries where you have other versions of football, the word soccer is just the most sensible word to use,” he said.

“And that’s the funny thing about it. Why would you object to people trying to avoid confusing language? So it’s all part of the craziness.” Source: Al Jazeera : World Cup 2022: Is it soccer? Is it football? Does it matter?