By far the most popular sport worldwide is football. Every year, millions of fans come together to experience the exciting moments offered by football players in venues around the globe. Being a team sport, football not only exercises the human body and mind, but also brings people together to produce measurable results. With famous players from every country, like the Brazilians Pelé and Zico, or the Hungarian Puskás, football-which is usually referred to as Association football in order to distinguish it from rugby football-has literally been worshiped mainly by male fans.
At least once, every boy in almost every neighborhood has been invited to participate in a friendly match of football -also known as "soccer." Promoted by international competitions like the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup, both held every four years, football has become the main subject of several discussions held among men and a cause of tremendous joy or misery. Watching a great goal or loosing a game can be the subjects of debate or celebration amongst football fans, sports writers and athletes alike. But, most importantly, football unites and excites people of all ages everywhere in the world regardless of their religion, their culture, or their political and ethnical backgrounds.
Yet, the word "football" is used in reference to two different, but related, team sports. Whilst in most English-speaking countries the word "football" usually refers to Association football (soccer being a slang abbreviation of the word "Association") in the countries of Canada, Samoa and the United States football is used to refer to the game of rugby-also referred to as North American football and Gaelic football. Although most consider that the word "football" refers to an action performed by a foot -like kicking a ball-there are some who accept another explanation and justify the use of hands in a rugby game. Specifically, during the Middle Ages, games played by peasants and involved a ball, which they did not necessarily kick, were described with the name "football"-games played on foot-as opposed to horse-riding, for instance, with was a sports game played mainly by aristocrats. Under this notion, with the word "football" one may describe any game played on foot.
But no matter if football was played primarily with the upper or lower body and regardless if it should or should not involve the use of hands, the fact still remains that it is the biggest success in sports history. In fact, football is one of the few sports in existence today that can exhilarate sports fans in such a degree and give to everyone owning a round shaped ball the opportunity to become a champion for at least a day.
Written By: Jonathon Hardcastle
