Although there are hundreds of other popular sports around the world, football (soccer) is hands down the most popular. Before we get into the why though, lets talk about the elephant in the room. Is it football? Is it soccer? The United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and several countries in southern Africa all call it soccer. The rest of the world either calls it some variation of “football” or another word altogether. Italy actually calls it calcio. So why does everyone blame the US for the word soccer? Well, the truth is that the British came up with the word soccer. Back in the day rugger (Association Rugby) and soccer (Association Soccer) were two popular sports in England. Many British colonies adopted the word soccer and the name stuck. The British ended up moving away from soccer towards the more European variation of “football” because they saw “soccer” as being American. At any rate, the deed is done and people will call it what they like but football/soccer is still the most popular sport on the planet. No matter what country you live in, chances are you have friends that play. These are 25 reasons that football is the most popular sport in history!
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Harald Bohr was the brother of Niels Bohr, the famous physicist. Harald was himself a famous mathematician as well as a footballer. In fact, his skills as a footballer were so great that when he was defending his doctoral thesis, the audience consisted of more football fans than mathematicians
The North Korean fans at the World Cup are actually Chinese volunteers because North Koreans aren't allowed to leave the country
It is called football not because you kick the ball, but because back in the day it was played by peasants on foot rather than on horseback like all of the rich-people sports
During a football match in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, lightning struck and killed all 11 players of one team while leaving the other team unhurt
Abby Wambach was switched from the girls team to the boys team when she was just 4 years old because she had scored 27 goals in the first 3 games
Football is said to have evolved from Mob Football. This was a sport played between villages with the goal being to the get the ball to the other village. The rules were very lax and basically only forbid killing the other team
Greenland has been unable to join FIFA because it is unable to grow enough grass for regulation grass pitches
The term "soccer" was actually first used in Britain. In fact, only in the 1970s did it come to be seen as an Americanism and fell out of favor
The eternal flame at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris was only put out once and that was accomplished by intoxicated Mexican football fans who ended up urinating on it during the 1998 World Cup
In the middle of World War 1, on Christmas Day in 1914, some officers from the UK and Germany called a truce. The men exchanged gifts and even played a game of football among themselves
Norway is the only team on Earth to never have lost a game to Brazil
Speaking of Football (Soccer), you should check out these 25 Hilarious Soccer Moments You Won’t Believe Weren´t Photoshopped.