Football is one of the most popular sports in the world. According to statistics, there are more than 265 million players worldwide. Also, about 4 billion people watch football matches with some regularity.
Football is a sport that has received not only professional but also amateur distribution. It isn't easy to find a person in the world who would know absolutely nothing about this direction. Today we have collected for you 10 interesting facts that are related to this sports discipline.
Now there are several theories about where football originated. At the same time, many experts agree that the modern analog of the game originated in China as early as 476 BC. Another interesting fact is that even though China gave the world this sports game, the local national team is in 86th place in the FIFA rankings.
In China, football was called Kuju. After that, there were several more similar ball games in the world. For example, the Mayans and the ancient Greeks played something similar. Also, something similar to modern football was trendy in England.
Football is the most popular sports discipline among ordinary fans and bettors who bet on sports. Anyone can register in an online casino and bet on their favorite team.
Such a demand for sports betting is due not only to the popularity of football. This is one of the sports disciplines you can bet regularly - matches are held several times a week.
According to FIFA, each World Cup attracts millions of viewers. At the same time, people may not follow the usual matches, but they watch the FIFA World Cup. The championship, which was held at the end of 2022, attracted at least 3.5 billion viewers, a completely new record.
Sheffield FC is now considered the oldest professional football club in the world. It was founded in 1857 and is still quite successful on the world stage. Now the football club play in the First Division of the Northern Premier League.
Each football match has a fixed duration of the main rounds - 90 minutes. The match is divided into two halves of 45 minutes. At the end of each half, additional time may also be allocated (due to stoppages of the game due to injuries and other incidents on the field) - from 1 to 5 minutes.
At the final matches, where the winner must be determined, additional extra times are introduced if the primary time was insufficient. Each half lasts 15 minutes. A penalty shoot-out is announced if the winner has not been determined in this case.
For a long time, the world record for the fastest goal belongs to Nawaf Al-Abed. The football player opened the scoring just 2.4 seconds after the start of the match. There were also many cases in football history when footballers scored goals in the first 5 seconds of a match.
Players from various football clubs most often play with Pakistani balls. In particular, the well-known brand Adidas and other manufacturers of high-quality soccer balls produce their products here. The first match for the World Cup was released in Pakistan in 1982.
The first FIFA World Cup was held back in 1930. Since then, matches have been regularly held every 4 years. Last year, 21 World Championships were successfully held.
Despite a large number of tournaments, only 8 countries became winners of all time. Brazil remains the most titled in this matter. She received the cup at once 5 times during the Championship.
When Americans talk about football, they mean American football, in which the game is played with an oval ball. American football is the most popular sport in the United States.
Canada also has its version of football, which, according to the rules, resembles American football. At the moment, only in the USA and Canada, football is called a sports discipline that is not known worldwide.
It is also worth mentioning that now there are many varieties of football - beach, mine, cyber, etc.
The largest football stadium of all currently existing is considered to be Rungrado May 1, which is located in Pyongyang. This stadium can simultaneously accommodate up to 150 people. According to some sources, the site's capacity is only 114 thousand people, but the stadium remains the largest even in this case.
At the same time, the largest attendance of a football match in the entire history of the existence of a sports discipline was recorded in 1950. Then the match between Uruguay and the Brazilian national team at the stadium was immediately watched by 199,854 people.
My daughter's first ever football match - Orlando City v Atlanta United, August 2019. Written for Izzy to read when she gets old enough. Vamos Orlando
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