The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), the body that regulates the game, estimates that more than 1.3 billion people are actively interested in soccer around the world, making soccer the most popular game in the world.
Decades ago, something about soccer conquered the world and turned a simple game into a lifestyle – a competitive sport in which the most talented players would make millions per game. But what makes it so special?
Soccer, also often referred to as soccer outside the United Kingdom and association soccer throughout Europe, is a game of two teams and one ball – soccer. Each team has 11 players, and using all parts of their body except their hands and arms, they must try to score the ball into the other team’s goal.
The goal is usually a large rectangular frame with a net attached to the back. However, amateur games often use only markers, such as traffic cones or, if you are a teenager, jerseys or bags. When it’s not professional soccer, conditions are often relaxed.
The goalie’s job is to keep the ball out of the net. Each team has a goalkeeper who, as an exception, may block the ball with his hands. However, they are allowed to do this only in the penalty area – a small area in front of and around the goal.
In soccer, the team that scores the most goals by the end of the game wins. The standard length of the game is 90 minutes with a short break, known as “halftime,” at the 45-minute mark. However, youth soccer games are often shorter, usually lasting only 45-60 minutes.
WHERE CAN I PLAY SOCCER?
Professional soccer matches are always played on a full-size field, which should be 90-120 meters (m) long and 45-90 meters wide. However, soccer can be played anywhere.
Since the game was first played, it has been played in streets, gardens, public places, school halls and even in war zones.
One of the most famous examples of playing soccer under unlikely circumstances during World War I and the Christmas Armistice of 1914, when German and British forces left their trenches and entered a neutral strip, where they reportedly played soccer and sang hymns for only one day before resuming combat.