The origin of football / soccer can be found in every corner of geography and history. The Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Ancient Greek, Persian, Viking, and many more played a ball game long before our era. The Chinese played “football”  games date as far back as 3000 years ago. The Ancient Greeks and the Roman used football  games to sharpen warriors for battle. In south and Central America a game called “Tlatchi” once flourished.

But it was in England that soccer / football really begin to take shape. It all started in 1863 in England, when two football association (association football and rugby football) split off on their different course. Therefore, the first Football Association was founded in England.

On October 1963, eleven London clubs and schools sent their representatives to the Freemason’s Tavern. These representatives were intent on clarifying the muddle by establishing a set of fundamental rules, acceptable to all parties, to govern the matches played amongst them. This meeting marked the birth of The Football Association. The eternal dispute concerning shin-kicking, tripping and carrying the ball was discussed thoroughly at this and consecutive meetings until eventually on 8 December the die-hard exponents of the Rugby style took their final leave. They were in the minority anyway. They wanted no part in a game that forbade tripping, shin-kicking and carrying the ball. A stage had been reached where the ideals were no longer compatible. On 8 December 1863, football and rugby finally split. Their separation became totally irreconcilable six years hence when a provision was included in the football rules forbidding any handling of the ball (not only carrying it).

Only eight years after its foundation, The Football Association already had 50 member clubs. The first football competition in the world was started in the same year – the FA Cup, which preceded the League Championship by 17 years.

International matches were being staged in Great Britain before football had hardly been heard of in Europe. The first was played in 1872 and was contested by England and Scotland. This sudden boom of organized football accompanied by staggering crowds of spectators brought with it certain problems with which other countries were not confronted until much later on. Professionalism was one of them. The first moves in this direction came in 1879, when Darwin, a small Lancashire club, twice managed to draw against the supposedly invincible Old Etonians in the FA Cup, before the famous team of London amateurs finally scraped through to win at the third attempt. Two Darwin players, the Scots John Love and Fergus Suter, are reported as being the first players ever to receive remuneration for their football talent. This practice grew rapidly and the Football Association found itself obliged to legalise professionalism as early as 1885. This development predated the formation of any national association outside of Great Britain (namely, in the Netherlands and Denmark) by exactly four years.

After the English Football Association, the next oldest are the Scottish FA (1873), the FA of Wales (1875) and the Irish FA (1880). Strictly speaking, at the time of the first international match, England had no other partner association against which to play. When Scotland played England in Glasgow on 30 November 1872, the Scottish FA did not even exist – it was not founded for another three months. The team England played that day was actually the oldest Scottish club team, Queen’s Park.

The spread of football outside of England, mainly due to the British influence abroad, started slow, but it soon gathered momentum and spread rapidly to all parts of the world. The next countries to form football associations after the Netherlands and Denmark in 1889 were New Zealand (1891), Argentina (1893), Chile (1895), Switzerland, Belgium (1895), Italy (1898), Germany, Uruguay (both in 1900), Hungary (1901) and Finland (1907). When FIFA was founded in Paris in May 1904 it had seven founder members: France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain (represented by the Madrid FC), Sweden and Switzerland. The German Football Federation cabled its intention to join on the same day.

This international football community grew steadily, although it sometimes met with obstacles and setbacks. In 1912, 21 national associations were already affiliated to the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). By 1925, the number had increased to 36, in 1930 – the year of the first World Cup – it was 41, in 1938, 51 and in 1950, after the interval caused by the Second World War, the number had reached 73. At present, after the 2000 Ordinary FIFA Congress, FIFA has 204 members in every part of the world.

We all know that Soccer is a fast-paced game played between two opposing teams in two 45-minute halves. Let us see some basic rules of Soccer. Every team has 11 players and they are arranged in a particular manner: 5 forwards, 3 halfbacks, 2 fullbacks, and 1 goalkeeper. Play is started by a kickoff at the center of the field, and the goal of the game is to keep the ball continually moving across the field. The only person who is allowed to handle the ball during the game is goalkeeper.

The team scores one point when the ball is successfully kicked into the opponents’ goal and the team with the higher points wins the game. Incase of a tie of score at end of time limit, overtime may be enacted. Further if the teams still remain tied after the end of the overtime, shootout (kicking contest) decides the winner of the game. In shootout every team is given 5 chances to hit unobstructed kicks at the opposing goal. The team with higher number of shootouts wins the game.

During the game, the opponent may use the intercept of tackling technique (taking the ball away) to gain the control of the ball. The team is penalized if any of its players other than the goal keeper uses their hand. This penalty gives a free kick to the opponent from the place where the rule was violated. It allows the opponents to kick from a close distance of 12 yards by aiming towards the goal, and only a goalkeeper is allowed to guard the net. Players are penalized by indirect free kicks if they violate rules and purposefully obstruct the player or waste the time. Indirect free kick requires one other player on the kicking team to touch the ball before the goal is made.

Timeouts cannot be called by players or coaches. The referees however, do hold the right to call a brief stop play in the incidence of a serious injury or if the ball crosses goal line or touchlines.

When the ball is unintentionally kicked over the touchlines, the opposing player is supposed to throw it in with hands. If it is driven over the goal line, it is put back in play by kicking it from a corner of the field by the opposing team. Hence it is also called as corner kick. A goal kick is made from the area in front of the goal. Usually a goal keeper makes the goal kick but it can be made by any player in the defending team.

There haven’t been many noticeable changes in the game right since the time they were standardized. However, one major rule that underwent change in last century is the offside rule. This rule can declare a player offside, in an unjust position, near the opponent’s goal line. Another not so major change is the rule revision that allows for two substitute players in international soccer.