Facts about soccer which u never knew

FACTS ABOUT FOOTBALL - HAVE A LOOK
SEE WHAT YOU DID OR DIDNT KNOW!
· Football originated generally in its present form in Britain.
· The world's oldest club formed in 1857 is Sheffield FC
(Metro FC was established in 1899, making it one of the
oldest clubs in NZ) it was founded by Colonel Nathaniel
Cresswick and Major William Priest, two British Army
officers
· Football is the most played and most watched sport on
Earth
· Football is called football in practically every country
except America, who call 'Grid Iron' football and football
soccer.
· Famous Football rivalries include the Old Firm ( Scotland),
Manchester derby, London derbies, Milan derby, Real vs
Barcelona, and many more.
· Some famous Football players: Pele, Maradonna,
Charlton, Eusebio, Cruyff, Dalglish, Ronaldo, Beckham,
Mattheus.
· The sport of Association Football (often referred to as
soccer or simply football) is the most popular team sport in
the world, in both number of spectators and number of
active participants.
· The largest attendance for a Football match ever was
199,854 people - Brazil v. Uruguay in the World Cup at the
Maracana Municipal Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, July 1950.
· In the largest Football tournament ever, no less than 5,098
teams competed in 1999 for the second Bangkok League
Seven-a-Side Competition. Over 35,000 players involved!
· The most goals scored by one player in a single Football
match was 16 by Stephan Stanis (France) playing for Racing
Club de Lens in December 1942.
· Based on video evidence, one of the fastest ever scored
was in 2.8 seconds by Ricardo Olivera ( Uruguay) in
December 1998.
· The international governing body of Football is the
Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA),
based in Zurich, Switzerland.
· Diego Maradona was only 16 when he made his debut for
Argentina.
· Football goalies didn't have to wear different coloured
shirts from their teammates until 1913.
· Eusebio scored 46 goals in the European Cup for Benfica.
· Chris Woods once went 1196 minutes without conceding a
goal while at Glasgow Rangers, from between November 26
1986 and January 31 1987.
· Ryan Giggs' (of Manchester United) dad was a
professional Rugby League player.
· In 1973, the entire Galilee team spent the night in jail for
kicking their opponents during an Israeli League game
Football players run an average of six miles during every
game.
Football is the most popular sport in the world. Over one
billion fans watch World Cup Football on television.
Every year except for two (1930 and 1950) European Teams
have reached every World Cup final.
India withdrew from the World Cup in 1950 because they
weren’t allowed to play barefoot.
Football facts reveal that only the United States and Canada
actually call soccer “soccer.”
Over 40 million watched on television as the U.S. Women’s
Team won the World Cup in 1999.
There are 1000 activity changes in every soccer match.
The World's First Football Club was the English Sheffield
Football Club, founded in 1857 by Colonel Nathaniel
Cresswick and Major William Priest, two British Army
officers.
Pele was the first to call Football “the beautiful game.”
The Football World Cup is played every four years.
The fewest number of fans to watch a World Cup Football
game was the 300 in Uruguay in 1930.
The very first game of basketball was played with a soccer
ball.
The most World Cups have been won by Brazil--5 with the
last in 2002.