Soccer or football is an outdoor sport played in between two teams, and each team has eleven players. The sport is played with a ball, and the objective is to get maximum goals. Goals are scored by kicking the ball into the opponents net which is guarded by the opponent team’s players. It is the most popular sport and is played by almost 250 million players from 200 nations. The highest governing body of football is the International Federation of Association Football or FIFA.
Soccer or football:
The football association made all the rules and regulations associated with the game in England in 1863. The sport was named association football so that it can be distinguished from the other forms of football especially the rugby football. Later in the 1880s, the word soccer came into existence which is an abbreviation of the word “association”.
Nowadays in the United Kingdom and other European and Asian countries association football is called only football, whereas people in USA and Canada use soccer. But the Latin American countries like Brazil and Argentina use football. People of Ireland, New Zealand, and Australia, however, use both the terms. However formally they use the word football.
Rules and regulations:
Each team got to have 11 players on their team, and they only get to touch the ball with their foot, hence the name football. Except for the goalkeepers, they are the only ones who get to use their hands and arms. The goalkeeper stays in front of the goal guarding the goal within the penalty area. The players in the outfield apart from their feet can use their head and torso to pass the ball to others.
The team with more goals wins the match. If the goals scored are tied then either it is declared a tie or extra time is given. Another way of deciding the winner is by a penalty shootout. It depends on the format followed by that competition. FIFA organizes both women and men’s world cup matches every four years. It is the most prestigious football competition in the entire world.