Briefly Examining The Football Controversy
By far
the most popular
sport worldwide is
football. Every year, millions
of fans come together
to experience
the exciting moments offered by
football players
in venues around
the globe. Being
a team sport,
football not only exercises
the human
body and mind, but also
brings people together to produce
measurable results. With famous players
from every country, like
the Brazilians Pel
and Zico,
or the Hungarian Pusks, football-which is
usually referred to
as Association football
in order to distinguish
it from rugby football-has literally
been worshiped
mainly by male fans.
At least
once, every boy
in almost every neighborhood has been
invited to participate
in a friendly
match of football -also known as "soccer." Promoted by international competitions like
the Olympic
Games and the FIFA World
Cup, both held every four years, football has become
the main subject
of several
discussions held among men and a cause of tremendous
joy or misery. Watching a
great goal or loosing a
game can be
the subjects of debate or celebration amongst football
fans, sports writers and athletes
alike. But, most importantly, football
unites and excites people of
all ages everywhere
in the world
regardless of
their religion,
their culture, or their political and
ethnical backgrounds.
Yet, the
word "football" is
used in reference to two
different, but related, team sports. Whilst in most English-speaking countries the word "football" usually
refers to Association football (soccer
being a slang abbreviation of the word "Association") in the countries of Canada, Samoa and the United
States football is used to refer to the game of rugby-also referred to as
North American football and Gaelic football. Although most
consider that the word "football" refers to an action performed by a foot -like
kicking a ball-there
are some who
accept another explanation and justify the use of hands in a rugby game. Specifically,
during the Middle Ages, games played by peasants and
involved a ball, which they did not
necessarily kick, were described with the name "football"-games played on foot-as
opposed to horse-riding,
for instance, with was a sports game played mainly by aristocrats. Under this
notion, with the word "football" one may
describe any game played on foot.
But no matter if football was played primarily with the upper or lower
body and regardless if it should or should not
involve the use of hands, the fact still
remains that it is the
biggest success in sports history. In fact, football is one of the
few sports in existence today that can exhilarate sports fans in such a degree and give to everyone owning a round shaped ball the opportunity to become a champion for
at least a day.
Jonathon Hardcastle writes articles for
http://footballorbust.com/ - In addition, Jonathon also writes articles for
http://recreationandmore.com/ and
http://igamerscorner.com/.