Sociogenesis of Soccer

Growing up I played every sport whether it was baseball, basketball, soccer, or football I was competing in it as a child. However when I moved to Europe and a young age I devoted most of my time to soccer because there were not as many opportunities to play football, baseball or basketball. I am a huge soccer fan and I still play competitively for CU's club and a Men's league based in Denver. I thought it would be interesting to follow the development of my favorite sport.

There are several examples of soccer-type sport throughout history Episkryos in Greece, and Harpastum a game played by the Roman's are close examples, however noth involved more handling of the ball than kicking. The japanese and Chinese also had similar games in both Kemari (Japan) and Cuju (China).
However the standardized game came into practice in the mid 19th century following efforts to create standard rules for the "Football" being played in English Public schools. And the first competitive match ever played is dated 19th of December 1863.
English men were responsible for the development of soccer after they worked to organize and standardize the game being played on school grounds all over England. These standard rules allowed for organized competitive matches to take place. The sport of Soccer or "Football" has its roots in many different games played throughout history, but the modern game was first played by Englishmen before spreading throughout Europe in south America before expanding all over the world. the sport has not diffused to anything

Obviously seeing as the sport was first played competitively in the mid 1800's equipment was much older and lacked the technology we have today.

Today we have much more efficient and innovative equipment allowing for better comfort, performance, durability, style and safety










There are several big events in each country. Many of the big leagues (Mostly in Europe) play out a season (Chanpionship) and it is a big deal to win every year. Other big events are the UEFA Champions League where all the best clubs in the Europe compete against one another. Also each continent holds a competition between each countries international squad every 4 years. But the biggest event of all, the one that has the whole world watching is the FIFA World Cup which takes place this summer in Brazil.

I cannot see many challenges facing the sport of soccer, all I can see is growth, it is already the most popular sport in the world even without a heavy interest from the United States, but interest is growing here in the U.S. and in several other countries around the globe.