Football from the very beginning has become a favorite game for men. To date, this is not just a sport, but a special hobby and a way of earning a living. In football etiquette certain traditions have already been formed and even records have been set.
Fun facts about football for kids
In the US, the soccer is called “football”, which all the world call American football. Nevertheless, the word “soccer” is not an American invention, it appeared in the 1880s in England from Oxford slang. Earlier, football in England had been officially called “association football” to differentiate it from other rugby-type ball games. The abbreviation association with the addition of the suffix -er and led to the appearance of the term “soccer”.
The stadiums constantly cry “Ole-ole-ole” as a way to express emotions for their favorite team. Very few people know, but the famous phrase comes from Spain. By the way, in the native country, the cry denotes a call to Allah.
The defeat of the national football team of Honduras from the team of El Salvador led to the six-day war . The case happened in the playoff matches of the qualifying stage of the World Cup of these countries in 1969.
The oldest football player of all the football clubs in the English Premier League has been English former football goalkeeper John Burridge. In 1955, he played in such a famous English football club, as Manchester City, at the age of 43 years and 5 months. During his long career, he played in 29 different clubs.
At the World Cup 2006, during the match Croatia – Australia, the referee Graham Poll set a kind of record. He showed Croat Josip Simunic 3 yellow cards, forgetting to remove the player from the field after the second one. The 42-year-old Englishman explained his blunder by accidentally “attributed” a yellow card to Craig Moore. The footballer in question was the third number of the Australian national team. The referee made it instead of the third number of the Croatian national team Simunic.
Interesting football facts for kids
There have been two cases when the referees showed the red card to themselves. The first one is Andy Wayne (the judge at the match Peterborough North End – Royal Mail). The second one is Melvin Sylvestre (the judge at the match Southampton Arms – Hurstbourne Tarrant British Legion). The first ran to the goalkeeper after another protest, but stopped in time and decided to remove himself. He decided not to take part in a fight. And the second one hit the player several times after the push.
In 1999, the Italian football club Fiorentina was selling jars with air selling in its branded stores. The collection included such “fragrances” as: “Spirit of the Tribunes”, “The Essence of Victory” and “The atmosphere of the dressing room”.
Pakistan produces 80% of all soccer balls in the world. Workers in the city of Sialkot make three quarters of them. Producing a significant number of these balls involves the child labor, although in recent years the governement has been trying to solve this problem.
Brazilian football player Giovane Élber, being a player of “Stuttgart”, once received in the first half a yellow card for talking with the judge about a goal. In the second half of the match the Brazilian came out, demonstratively sealing his mouth with red tape.
Shortly before the World Cup in 1966 in England, someone stole the main trophy of the most popular game in the world. The police and Scotland Yard joined the search, but found the goblet seven days later in the bushes of one of the London gardens. It happened thanks to a dog named Pickles, who was walking there with the owner. After winning the England national team invited the dog to the triumphal banquet.
Diego Maradona since playing for the Italian football team “Napoli” did not pay a large amount of taxes. Now this amount is almost 40 million dollars. Therefore, when Maradona arrives in Italy, he always runs the risk of losing some things. In 2006, Italian police confiscated his expansive Rolex watch, and in 2009 they appropriate some precious football player’s earring. Then they sold the jewelry at some auction.
American football facts for kids
As the Wall Street Journal wrote in 2010, analysing four matches, it turned out that on average The NFL (National Football League) game lasts about 11 minutes of a three-hour broadcast. However, advertising during it takes almost 60 minutes, and all the rest of the time (about 56% of the game on TV) spends on repeats and close-ups of football players.
According to the article of the magazine Sports Illustrated of 2009, about 78% of former NFL players went bankrupt or are in the stage of financial stress in two years after retirement.
Cheerleaders in the NFL receive $ 50 per game.
In the NFL playoffs between the Philadelphia Eagles and By the Chicago bears in 1988, the fog was so dense that not only the fans, but also the players could not see the field on which they were playing, and the speakers commented on everything that was happening on the field.
Professionals build fields for the NFL from north to south. They either project them in the shadows, so as the sun does not interfer with the game.
The NFL annually uses 3,000 cows for sewing footballs.
NFL player Steve Smith always leaves his boots on the field after the game. In such a way he tries to draw attention to the problems of the homeless.
The ethnic men of American Samoa, according to the statistics, are 56 times more likely to become NFL players than other Americans.
American football grew out of English sports such as rugby and football, and became popular in American colleges in the late 1800s.
In 1876, a coach Walter Lager, named the “Father of American Football”, helped to create the first rules of American football. Among the important changes was the introduction of linear fights and the rules of “down-distance”.
History of football facts for kids
The American Professional Football Association was formed in 1920. Two years later it became the National Football League (NFL). And finally it became the main league of American football.
The most popular television event in the United States in all the history is the Super Bowl.
The company Wilson Sporting Goods Company in Ada, Ohio, has been the official supplier of footballs for the NFL since 1941. They annually produce more than 2 million footballs.
The cow has only 1 out of 17,420,000 chances to become a NFL football, used for the Super Bowl.
Only two players caught, rushed and threw a landing against the same team in the same game. They were Walter Peyton in 1979 and David Patton in 2001.
While football was originally popular in the industrial cities of the Midwest, its significant popularity around the US was traced in the 1958 NFL championship game. This event got the name as “The Greatest Game Ever Played.”
Injured players in the NFL television games receive six seconds more from the camera time than the celebration of the players.
In 1892, former Yale University star William “Pudge” Heffelfinger became the first recognized professional player. This happened, when he agreed to take $ 500 to play for the Allegheny Athletic Association.
During the broadcast of the NFL games, the fans are shown on television for only about 3 seconds. Trainers and referees get about 7% of the time in the game.
