The Beautiful Game: A History of Football:

Football is the most popular sport in the world, and with good reason—it’s fast-paced, exciting, and extremely popular both at home and abroad. It’s also one of the most physically challenging sports to play, as it requires strength, agility, speed, endurance, and more. But how did football come to be? And how did it grow into such an international sensation? Take a look at this history of football infographic to learn more about its rise to popularity.

Football (or soccer where the game is known in some parts of the world) has a long history. The current form of football began in England in the mid-19th century. However, alternative versions of the game have been around for a long time and are part of the history of football.

The first known example of a team game with a ball made of rock dates back to ancient Mesoamerican culture over 3000 years ago. It was called Chatari by the Aztecs, but different versions of the game were widespread. On several ceremonial occasions, the ball symbolized the sun, and the captain of the losing team was sacrificed by the gods. A unique feature of the Mesoamerican ballgame version was the bouncy rubber ball-other early cultures did not have access to rubber.  The first known ball games with kicks were performed in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC.

In China, it's called cuju. Cuju played with a round ball (stitched leather with fur or feathers) on a square surface. A modified form of this game later spread to Japan and was practiced in the form of a ritual under the name of Kemari. Perhaps the older Aboriginal Kemari, Man Gook, played by Aboriginal Australians, was a ball game primarily involving kicks in the 19th century, according to white immigrants. The balls were made of covered leaves or roots. Little is known about the rules, but like many other early versions of the game, keeping the ball in the air was probably an important feature.

 Other types of ball games have been known since ancient Greece. The ball was made from a piece of leather stuffed with hair (the first record of an air-filled ball dates back to the 7th century). However, ball games have a low status and were not considered at the Panhellenic Games. In ancient Rome, ball games were not part of the entertainment of the Great Arena (amphitheater), but were performed during military exercises under the name harpastum. It was the Roman culture that brought football to the British Isles (Britannica). However, it is unclear how much the British were affected by this strain and how much they developed their own model.

According to the most famous story, the game was developed in England in the 12th century. In this century, soccer-like games were played in the fields and streets of England. In addition to kicking, the game also included hitting the ball with a fist. This early form of football was much rougher and more violent than modern play styles. An important feature of the game involved many people and was played in large areas of the city (the equivalent was played in Florence from the 16th century and was called Calico). The riots of these games damage the city and sometimes kill the participants. This was one of the reasons for the proclamation of games banned for centuries. But games like soccer returned to the city of London in the 17th century. It was banned again in 1835, but by this time the game was well established in public schools. However, it took a long time before the characteristics of today's soccer were demonstrated. For a long time, there was no clear distinction between soccer and rugby. There were also many variations in ball size, number of players, and length of play.

Games were common in schools, and two of the main schools were rugby and Eaton. In rugby, the rules include the ability to pick up the ball by hand, and the game known today as rugby started here. In Eaton, on the other hand, the ball is played only with the foot, and the game can be considered the predecessor of modern football.  Rugby games were called "running games" and Eaton's games were called "dribble games". At a conference in Cambridge in 1848, attempts were made to establish the right rules for the game, but no definitive solution to the problem of all the rules was reached. Another important event in the history of football took place in London in 1863 when the first football association was formed in England. It has been decided that carrying the ball by hand is not allowed. The conference also brought about standardization of ball size and weight. As a result of the London conference, the game was split into two codes. Association soccer and rugby.

 However, the game has evolved for a long time, and there is still room for many wiggles when it comes to rules. For one thing, the number of players on the pitch can change. Also, no uniforms were used to distinguish the appearance of the team.

Another important difference at this point can be seen between the English and Scottish teams. The British team preferred to run the ball forward, but the Scottish people chose to play the ball among the players. It was the Scottish approach that quickly became dominant.

 Sports was initially a British working class entertainment. An unprecedented crowd of up to 30,000 watched the big names of the late 19th century. The game will soon be expanded by the British traveling to other parts of the world. Interest in football increased, especially in South America and India.

By the early 20th century, football had spread throughout Europe, but it needed an international organization. The solution was discovered in 1904 when representatives of the Football Associations of Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland founded the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA).

In the late 19th century, there were few domestic soccer teams. England and Scotland had the first active teams to play with each other in the 1870s. Currently, 211 national associations belong to the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA), the world's sports federation. Further evidence of globalization was the increase in the number of countries participating in the World Cup qualifiers. From 32 in 1934 to over 200 in 2014.

 The regions of the world have been divided into six federations:

·         Confederations Africana de Football (CAF),

·         Asia Football Confederation (AFC),

·         Union des Associations Européennes de Football (UEFA),

·         Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF),

·         Oceania Football Confederation. (OFC),

·         Confederación Sudamericanade Fútbol (CONMEBOL).

Soccer is the most popular ball game in the world in terms of the number of participants and spectators. The sport has simple key rules and basic equipment and can be played almost anywhere from official soccer pitches to gymnasiums, streets, school playgrounds, parks, and beaches. At the turn of the 21st century, FIFA, the governing body of football, estimates that about 250 million football players and more than 1.3 billion people are "interested" in football. In 2018, more than 3.572 billion viewers (more than half the global population above four and over) watched the World Cup, the most important football tournament, held every four years.