SOCCER – THE BEAUTIFUL GAME 1
Soccer – The Beautiful Game
I had never thought about how much impact soccer has had on my life until I started working on
this assignment, when I had to answer the question “What is my passion?” The answer came to
me before I’d even finished asking myself the question; soccer. The next question I instinctively
asked myself after that was “Why?” Again, the obvious answer came to my mind; simply
because I love it. I thought there was no need to elaborate more on that. I simply assumed that
those words were enough to express my thoughts on the matter. However, when I started to
ponder deeply about it, I realized that there was a much deeper meaning behind those words that
goes way beyond the game itself.
The Goal of the Game
Soccer is one of the simplest sports in the world. It is a form of football played between two
teams of eleven players on a pitch and the aim is to get the ball inside the opposing team’s goal
without using the hands, except for goalkeepers.
The History of Soccer
Soccer has a very unique and rich history. Although there is no straightforward answer as to
where soccer actually began, it is commonly believed that the sport was born during the early
SOCCER – THE BEAUTIFUL GAME 2
Han Dynasty in China, which was around 200 B.C (Scott Murray, 2010). It spread from Asia to
Europe and it was not until 1815 that England became the first country to record the rules of
soccer. The Cambridge rules were made which are now the official rules. The Chinese never
thought that passing around a ball would later become the most popular sport in the world,
leading the sport industry with a net worth of well over $400 billion today (Mueller et al, 2010).
What sets it Apart from Other Sports?
Soccer has long be referred to as ‘The Beautiful Game’ (Harper, 2003) and in my opinion, it well
deserves this title. It is a sport that has no room for weakness. All the players have the duty of
showing amazing endurance throughout the whole game. A basic adult soccer match consists of
90 minutes gameplay, divided into 2 periods known as halves. Each half runs continually,
