Vocabulary

ancient Greeks – стародавні Греки

to wage wars – веcти війни

to suffer – страждати

to accompany – супроводжувати

sculptor – скульптор

afterwards – згодом

important decision – важливе рішення

International Congress – інтернаціональний конгрес

first Committee – перший комітет

to inspire – надихати

responsible – відповідальний

affairs – справи

honorary cups – почесні кубки

to practice - практикувати

religious reasons – релігійні причини

The history of football

I am going to tell you about the history of football, one the most popular sport games all over the World.

Football is a popular sport played all over the world. It is the national sport of most European and Latin-American countries and of many other nations.

Millions of people in more than 140 countries play football. Football is played in the Olympics. Games similar to football were played in China as early as 400 ВС. Egyptians played a kind of football too. They played games involving the kicking of a ball. In about 200 AD the Romans played a game in which two teams tried to score by advancing a ball across a line on the field. The Romans passed the ball to one another but they never kicked it.

London children in about 1100 played a form of soccer in the streets. During the 1800's the people of England played a game similar to football. Many rules changed and each person interpreted the rules differently. Now, the sport has grown to a global scale, including men's and women's teams and the World Cup and European Championship competitions, which is played every four years. Also there is The League of Champions and FIFA Cup competitions which take place every year in Europe.

Football originated with kicking games played by people in ancient times. The modern version came from England. Football was not that popular kind of game until the mid-1900s.

It started as a game involving kicking and handing, but late this branched off into two separate sports: rugby and football, which is what the Americans call soccer. Around the late nineteenth century, English football began spreading over Europe. The United States was one of the last to implement football as a national sport. The Canadian Soccer Association was established in 1912 while the United States Soccer Federation was set up in 1913.

The first World Cup Championship was in Montevideo, Uruguay. Since then it has been played every four years except during World War II. The North American Soccer League (NASL) was formed in 1968. But it didn't gain popularity until the 1970's.

The rules of play for soccer are simple. The referee makes most of the decisions and attempts to encourage fair play. The game starts off with a kick off and the teams are allowed to pass, dribble, juggle, head, kick and shoot the ball to place it down the field, and (hopefully or eventually) into their opponent's goal.

If the ball is kicked off the field over the length of the field, the other team is given a throw-in, where the ball is thrown over the player's head, and back onto the field. If the ball is kicked over the goal or across the width of the field, either a corner kick results, realizing by the offensive team, where the ball is placed on the corner of the field and kicked into play or the defensive team is awarded a kick, where the ball is placed on the corner of the goal box, and kicked back into play. If a goal is scored, the ball is taken back to the center of the field and the team, scored against, kicks off and keeps playing.