When was soccer first played?
396908
The proper name of soccer is "association football".It is said that it was played before 1000 years.There is also a belief that Soccer-like games were played in China as many as 2000 years ago.And again people say that the Romans played a game called "harpastum" which was probably the origin of modern soccer.Now, soccer has been the most popular game.At the end of the 1980's, about 12 million Americans under the age of 19 (37% of them girls) were playing organized soccer.\n\nSource-SAMM
398187
FIFA was founded in Paris on 21 May 1904.\n\nBelgium faced France at the first official international match in Brussels on 1 May 1904. \n\nFor oodles more information, please check out:\nhttp://www.fifa.com/en/history/history/0,1283,4,00.html
490715
Football, as a genre, has been around for hundreds of years.  The current version of the game played in America was first played in the 1870's
383867
All of these answers are wrong.  The US did not invent the term "soccer" - the Brits did.  In the early 1800s, the game of rugby was invented.  In a football/soccer game at Rugby, a kid picked up the ball and started running around - the other kids chased him.  Eventually the game became known as "rugby football".  \n\nAt the time traditional football/soccer, teams played in an association (before there were any leagues).  To distinguish the two footballs, people called them "rugby football" and "association football".  In some circles, association football acquired the slang term "soccer" - an abbreviation for (a)socc football.  Eventually rugby football became "rugby" and association football was "football".\n\nHowever, some still used the term soccer.  The US is not the only country to call the game soccer.  Australia, Canada, and Ireland all have their own forms of "football" i.e. Aussie Rules Football, Gaelic Football, so they also call football soccer.
365320
Don't know who scored the goal.  But the first FIFA match was May 1, 1904.  The match was held in Brussels, Belgium.  The game was between Belgium and France.
505496
Football is a game which dates back literally hundreds of years but it has changed form a lot over the centuries. It originally started as an unrecognisable game in which two whole villages would compete against each other to fight, kick, punch and brawl their way to carry a ball to a certain target area. The current version of the game started in England in the second half of the 19th century.\n\nAs for introducing it to the world, the first international game was between England and Scotland but I can't say for sure exactly when
195471
The sport is called soccer in the United States and Canada. But in many countries it is called football, the name Americans give to an entirely different game. In Spanish-speaking countries, where the game is especially popular, the name is fútbol. \n\nWHAT IS SOCCER?\n\nSoccer is a game played by two teams on a field that is shaped like a rectangle. Players on one team try to knock a round ball through the other team’s goal. The field they play on is roughly the size of an American football field.\n\nWHAT ARE THE RULES?\n\nEach soccer team has 11 players. The players can use any part of their bodies to hit the ball, except their hands or arms. Players generally use their feet and heads as they kick, dribble, and pass the ball toward the goal. One player on each team guards the goal and tries to prevent the other team from scoring. This player is the goalkeeper, or goalie. The goalkeeper is the only player allowed to touch the ball with the hands while the ball is in play.\n\nThe other players are divided into defenders, midfielders, and forwards. Defenders, also called fullbacks, try to stop the opposing team from reaching the goal with the ball. Forwards, also called strikers, do most of the scoring. Midfielders, or halfbacks, play defense but also try to score.\n\nHOW LONG DOES A GAME LAST?\n\nMost soccer games are 90 minutes long. They have two 45-minute halves divided by a short break, or halftime. Besides halftime, the action stops only when a team scores, a foul is committed, or a player is injured. The official who makes sure the rules are followed is called the referee. The referee can add extra time at the end of each half to make up for time lost during delays.\n\nHOW OLD IS SOCCER?\n\nPeople have played kicking games with balls since ancient times. The modern form of soccer came from Britain. It dates from the 1860s, when the rules were first written down. \n\nBy the late 1800s, British sailors, traders, and soldiers had carried the game all over the world. Professional soccer leagues soon appeared in many countries. Today, almost every country in Europe, North America, and South America has professional soccer leagues. So do many countries in Africa and Asia.\n\nOne country where soccer didn’t grow very fast was the United States. It wasn’t until the 1970s that many Americans began to follow it. After that, the sport took off. Today, millions of Americans play soccer in schools, colleges, and local leagues.\n\nTHE WORLD CUP\n\nThe World Cup is an international soccer tournament held every four years. There is one World Cup tournament for men and another one for women. The World Cup for men is the most popular sporting event in the world. More than a billion people around the world watch the men’s World Cup on television. \n\nThe 1994 men’s World Cup took place in the United States, as did the 1999 women’s World Cup. Both tournaments helped increase the popularity of soccer in the United States.\n\nWHO ARE SOME FAMOUS SOCCER PLAYERS?\n\nMany soccer fans consider the Brazilian forward named Pelé to be the best soccer player of all time. Pelé led Brazil to three World Cup titles, the last one in 1970. He won fame for his amazing ball control and powerful shots.\n\nEnglish player David Beckham is famous for his long, curving shots. An attacking midfielder, Beckham led the English national team to the quarterfinals in the 2002 World Cup.\n\nRonaldo, another Brazilian forward, is known for his great speed and scoring ability. In 2002, Ronaldo scored both goals in the World Cup final, giving Brazil the championship.\n\nThe American player Mia Hamm is considered one of the greatest female players ever. A forward, Hamm is the all-time leading scorer in international soccer. In 1999, she led the United States to the women’s World Cup title.
589583
You incorrectly called soccer "football."  Football is played in America and is a real sport.  Soccer is a game -- not a sport.  Anyone can kick a little ball.
391304
The origins of soccer go back way further than 1620, most ancient cultures had some sort of ball game played by it's population. The Mayans for instance were playing a ball game over 3000 years ago!\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_ballgame\nOfficially though, FIFA credit the invention to the Chinese. That version however was undoubtly was very different to the modern game, which as noted above, was properly formalised into Association Football in England during the 19th Century
428132
The word "soccer" comes from "As[soc]iation Football," which is the formal version of the game. It was adopted by the Football Association (FA) in 1863.
1017659
The first FIFA World Cup was staged in 1930. The tournament was played in Uruguay, the Olympic champions at the time, since they were celebrating the centenary of their independence. As well as being the first ever hosts, Uruguay also became the inaugural champions, beating Argentina in the final, 4 – 2.
588360
I would say Baseball.\n\nThe first sports telecast took place on May 17, 1939.  The event was a college baseball game between Columbia and Princeton at BAKER FIELD, in UPPER MANHATTAN, New York.  Princeton won in the 10th inning, 2-1.  The event was televised over W2XBS, the experimental station that later became WNBC-TV.
537671
The First International Match was played in Glasgow, Scotland on 30th. November 1872 when Scotland played England. The Scottish FA did not then exist - it was not founded until three months later. The team England played that day was actually the oldest Scottish club team, Queen's Park - founded 1863.\n\nThe First Professional Players were reputedly two Scots -John Love, and Fergus Suter, who played for a north of England club called Darwen in the 1879 season - and were paid for their soccer talent
275696
Both American Football and Soccer (called Football by the rest of the world) have their origins in the game of Rugby, invented in 1823 at the Rugby Boys' School in England.  \n\nA "football-type" game was played on the first Monday of every school year on the Boston Common by Harvard University Students and caught on in popularity around 1860 (about the time of the Civil War).  In 1865, Princeton and Rutgers along with other colleges established standard rules for the game, and that same year, the football itself was patented.\n\nIn the 1890's the game was so brutal that nearly 200 players had been injured badly.  In 1905, President Teddy Roosevelt called upon Harvard, Princeton, and Yale to help save the sport from demise.  These schools met, agreed upon rules for reform, and invited other schools to come and meet about these reforms.  Sixty schools showed up and formed what would eventually be come to known as the NCAA.
291537
The roots of the sport are from rugby and soccer (european football).  The form of the game played in the 1870's was a contact sport played with mostly soccer rules.
1136191
>>>Rob L is correct!!!\nSport Organisation for Collective Contributions and Equal Rights (SOCCER) is anacronym created in South Africa and it has NOTHING to do with the origin of soccer (the game).\nSee this pages:\n\nhttp://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-12175.html\nhttp://electionresources.org/za/provinces.php?election=1994\n\n and search for the word "soccer".
613458
Soccer is a slang word deriving from AsSOCiation Football and originated in England in the 19th century.