Who invented soccer?

You can play football almost anywhere. All you need is a ball. Of course, you also need teammates and some space. But there are lots of rules for a “proper” game of football.

A team consists of eleven players. Only the goalkeeper may handle the ball. The pitch and goal must be a certain size. There are free kicks, corner kicks, penalties and the offside rule. Players who break the rules may receive a yellow or red card. Football is one of the most popular sports in the world.

The Chinese may have played football more than 3,000 years ago. However, we know nothing about their rules. Football was played in England as early as the Middle Ages. Players from two villages tried to get a ball into the opposing village’s town gate.

These villages were often several kilometers apart. Almost anything was allowed in the game, and serious injuries were common. The "Calcio Storico", played about 500 years ago in the city of Florence, Italy, was also very rough. Modern soccer originated in England. There, students at the University of Cambridge drew up the first rules of soccer. That was in 1846. At the time, a team still had 15 to 20 players. A few years later, the number of players was limited to 11, and only the goalkeeper was allowed to touch the ball with their hands. In 1872, the first international match was played between teams from England and Scotland. The game ended 0–0. Soccer matches were now overseen by referees, the goal height was set at 2.44 m, and sending players off and awarding free kicks were introduced. In 1888, the first professional league was founded in England, where players could earn money playing soccer. The first soccer rules in Germany were drawn up in 1874. Soccer struggled to gain popularity against gymnastics, which was popular at the time. The sport first spread among people with good incomes. Workers could hardly afford the expensive equipment for the "English sport". The German Football Association (DFB) was not founded until 1900. A few years later, the rule requiring players’ shorts to cover their knees was abolished. The first German champions were VfB Leipzig, who beat a team from Prague 7–2 in 1903. The first World Cup was held in Uruguay, South America, in 1930. Thirteen teams took part in the competition. Uruguay became the first world champions. Germany’s national team first won the title in 1954. It repeated the achievement in 1974, 1990 and 2014. Brazil has been world champion five times so far. Since 1955, there had been the European Cup of Champions Clubs. Today, this competition is called the Champions League. The DFB did not allow women’s teams to compete until 1970. The Bundesliga was established in 1963. The first Women’s World Cup was not held until 1991. Today, soccer is one of the most popular sports on Earth. The 215 countries represented in the world soccer governing body FIFA include Germany. More than 2 million boys and girls actively play soccer in Germany, and over 6.3 million members are registered with the DFB.