Now You Know Soccer. Doug Lennox
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NOW YOU KNOW SOCCER
NOW YOU KNOW SOCCER
Doug Lennox
DUNDURN PRESS TORONTO
Copyright © Dundurn Press Limited, 2009
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Editor: Shaun Smith
Copy-Editor: Shannon Whibbs
Design: Courtney Horner
Printer: Webcom
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Lennox, Doug
Now you know soccer / by Doug Lennox.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-55488-416-2
1. Soccer--Miscellanea. I. Title.
GV943.2.L45 2009 796.33402 C2009-900499-2
1 2 3 4 5 13 12 11 10 09
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Printed and bound in Canada.
Printed on recycled paper.
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SOCCER
contents
On the Pitch
The World Cup
Domestics and Internationals
Great Players
The Women’s Game
Clubs and Sides
Soccer Talk
Soccer Culture
Finals and Results
In July 2007 the world governing body of soccer, FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), released the results of a major multi-year survey of its member nations called “The Big Count.” What was the big news they discovered with their fancy survey? Only that soccer is the most popular game in the world. Which of course begs the question, did they really need to ask?
Everyone with a piece of ground and a ball can start playing soccer. Maybe that is why it is called “the beautiful game,” because of its tremendous egalitarian qualities. Rich or poor, it really doesn’t matter on the soccer pitch, or the cobblestone street, or the patch of desert sand. Soccer has a way of equalizing things.
Soccer has also been called “the simplest game” and that is deceptive, for at its best it is a game of tremendous skill and awesome athleticism. It is also a game of remarkable power, which can mold cultures and shape lives. It can make us scream with delight, or cry with outrage — whether we’re running down the touchline ourselves, just barely in control of the ball, or watching a master on TV who seems like he must have wings on his heels.
Over 265 million people, the FIFA study informs us, are actively involved in soccer around the world today. I’ve tried my best to provide a cross-section of that world in this book, packing it with questions and queries, lists and facts, anecdotes and answers. Soccer is indeed both beautiful and simple, and I hope that while reading this book, you’ll share my feeling that through those two traits, it has also become the world’s most fascinating game.
What is the origin of soccer?
Soccer-like games that involved the kicking of a ball across a playing pitch have existed for eons in regions from China to Meso-America to the Arctic tundra. But modern soccer, as it evolved in Great Britain, has its roots in a medieval European game called “mob football,” which was played between rival villages at times of celebration and festivity, especially on Shrove Tuesday. Played in England, Normandy, Brittany, Picardy, Cornwall, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, mob football saw teams of unlimited size trying to force a ball (often an inflated pig’s bladder) into an opponent village’s main square or onto its church’s steps. The rules were vague and play was often extremely violent, leading to broken limbs, internal injuries, and even the occasional death.
Quickies
Did you know …
• the first recorded soccer death was in 1280 when in a game of mob football at Ulgham, near Ashington in Northumberland, a player was killed as a result of running against an opposing player’s sheathed dagger?
Why did both Edward II and Edward III both prohibit soccer?
In 1314 King Edward II issued a prohibition against so called “mob football” because of the chaotic impact that “this hustling over large balls” had on the city life in London. Edward III also prohibited “futeball” in 1349 because it distracted able-bodied men from archery practice.
Some Bluebloods Who Banned Soccer
• Edward II of England, in 1314
• Phillippe V of France, in 1319
• Edward III of England, in 1349
• Charles V