Jhayben's soccer facts

Welcome to my fun facts about soccer where you can read
some soccer fun facts that most people don't know about
this beautiful game.
1. Soccer is called football in practically every country
except the US and Canada is the first cool soccer fact.
2. Soccer is distinguished from rugby and American/
Canadian football in that it is primarily played with the feet.
Touching the ball with hands is not allowed.
3. Soccer fun facts continue with Soccer being originally
called association football. "Soccer" is a corruption of
"assoc" which is derived in turn from "association" and the
English people tending to shorten their words :)
4. The University of North Carolina has won an incredible 16
national championships in women's soccer since the first
US college tournament in 1982 as facts about soccer
continue.
5. Cool soccer facts include the World Cup being the biggest
soccer tournament in the world. It is held every four years in
a different host country.
Billions of people watch the televised games as the national
teams from countries around the globe battle it out for
soccer supremacy.
6. Fun soccer fact is that United States Major League
Soccer made its debut in 1996, shortly after the wildly
successful 1994 World Cup was hosted by the United
States.
7. The Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) made
its debut in 2001.
Eight teams participated, and Brandi Chastain's Bay Area
CyberRays won the inaugural league championship over
Atlanta.
The league disbanded in 2003 as the fun facts about soccer
continue.
8. United States has more official soccer players than any
other nation in the world - almost 18 million.
Of these, 78 percent are under the age of 18. In the 1990s,
soccer was recognized as the fastest-growing college and
high school sport in the US which I find as one of the cool
soccer facts.
9. 20 red cards were shown during a 1993 game between
Sportivo Ameliano and General Caballero in Paraguay
making this a very funny soccer fact.
10. ASEC Abidjan of Cote D'Ivoire went unbeaten for 108
games between 1989 and 1994.
11. Carlos Caszely of Chile was the first red carded player in
a World Cup tournament on June 14, 1974 as the fun facts
about soccer continue.
12. Facts about soccer show that European Teams have
reached the final of every World Cup except in 1930 and
1950.
13. Goalkeeper Arthur Wharton was the first black
professional soccer player.
He was born in Ghana (then Gold Coast) and played for
English League team Rotherham United in 1889.
14. In 1950 India withdrew form the World Cup because
FIFA refused to let their team play barefoot making this
another very funny fact about soccer.
15. Another funny soccer fact is when Turkey knocked out
Spain during a 1954 World Cup qualifier by drawing straws.
Blindfolded Italian boy Luigi Franco Gemma picked the
straws to decide the winner.
16. In 1957 with only 30 minutes remaining, Charlton
Athletic game back from a 5-1 deficit to defeat Huddersfield
Town 7-6. Very cool soccer fact :)
17. Fun facts about soccer continue with Penarol of
Urugauy conceding only five goals in 18 games on the way
to an unbeaten 1968 season.
18. In 1996 George Weah paid for his teammates uniforms
and expenses so that Liberia could enter the African Nations
Cup.
19. In 1997 Nigerian international Celestine Babayaro broke
his leg while celebrating a goal in his Chelsea debut during a
preseason game. Cant say that this was a fun soccer fact
but it sure is funny in a sad way.
20. Funny fact about soccer is when English referee Martin
Sylvester sent himself off in 1998 after punching a player
during a game in the Andover and District Sunday League.
21. In the 1938 World Cup semifinal, Italian Guiseppe
Meazza's shorts fell down as he was taking a penalty shot.
He held his shorts up and calmly scored past Brazil's Valter
Zenga making this one of the funniest facts about soccer :D
22. Jean Langenus of Belgium wore a suit jacket, golfing
pants and a red striped tie when he refereed the 1930 World
Cup final.
23. Luigi Riva once broke the arm of a spectator with one of
his powerful shots. This is what you might call a cool
soccer fact :)
24. Madagascan team Stade Olympique L'Emryne scored
149 own goals against champions AS Adema in 2002.
They repeatedly scored own goals in protest of a refereeing
decision in their previous game.
This is one funny soccer fact, imagine watching a team
repeatedly score own goals lol
25. Fun facts about soccer continue with Michael Laudrup.
He appeared for Real Madrid in a 5-0 win over Barcelona
and also played for Barcelona when they beat Real Madrid
5-0.
26. Funny fact about soccer shows non flying Dutchman
Dennis Bergkamp's fear of flying causing him to miss many
international and European games for Arsenal.
27. Sir Alex Ferguson was fired by St. Mirren in 1978 for
swearing at a lady. Alex Ferguson swearing, what a funny
soccer fact hehe
28. One of the cool soccer facts is that Sir Stanley
Matthews never received a booking in his 33 year long
career.
29. Under Herbert Chapman, The Arsenal changed their
name to simply Arsenal in order to appear at the top of the
alphabetical list of old Division One clubs.
30. The first televised game was an Arsenal practice match
at the Highbury ground in 1937.
There you have some of the most fun facts about soccer as
well as few funny soccer facts and some very cool soccer
facts through the history of this beautiful game.
I hope you enjoyed reading and learning these fun facts
about soccer, feel free and check out more soccer
information here on soccer maniak.