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ORIGIN
OF SOCCER (Football)
The Chinese played "football" games dated as far back as 3000 years
ago.
But it was in England that soccer
really begin to take shape. It
all started in 1863 in England,
when two football associations (association
football and rugby football) split
off on their different course. Therefore,
the first Football Association was
founded in England. On October 1863,
eleven London clubs and schools sent
their representatives to the Freemason's
Tavern. This meeting marked the birth
of The Football Association.
Only eight years after its foundation,
The Football Association already had
50 member clubs.
The
first International match was played in 1872 and was contested
by England and Scotland. Two Darwin
players, John Love and Fergus
Suter, are reported as being the first
players ever to receive remuneration
for their football talent.
The next member clubs are the Scottish
FA (1873), the FA of Wales (1875)
and the Irish FA (1880). Netherlands
and Denmark(1889) 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.
In 1912, 21 national associations
were already affiliated to the Fédération
Internationale de Football Association
(FIFA). At present, after the 2000
Ordinary FIFA Congress, FIFA has 204
members in every part of the world. |