30 FACTS ABOUT FOOTBALL YOU DONT KNOW

30 interesting facts
about one of the most loved sports in
the world.
1. Football originated in China around 476 B.C.
2. Football is the most played and most watched sport on earth.
3. Football is the most popular sport in the world. Over one billion fans watch
World Cup Football on television.
4. The largest Football tournament saw no less than 5,098 teams. They
competed in 1999 for the second
Bangkok League Seven-a-Side
Competition. Over 35,000 players
participated.
5. The maximum number of goals scored by one player in a single
Football match was 16. It was scored
by Stephan Stanis (France) playing for
Racing Club de Lens in December
1942.
6. Based on video evidence, one of the fastest ever scored was in 2.8
seconds by Ricardo Olivera (Uruguay)
in December 1998.
7. Football goalies didn't have to wear different coloured shirts from their
teammates until 1913. 8. Football players run an average of 9.65 kms during every game.
9. The very first game of basketball was played with a soccer ball.
10. The World's First Football Club was the English Sheffield Football Club. It
was founded in 1857 by Colonel
Nathaniel Cresswick and Major William
Priest, two British Army officers.
11. European Teams have reached every World Cup final, except for the
finals of 1930 and 1950.
12. The highest scoring game was clocked 149-0. Stade Olympique de
L’emyrne, a team from Madagascar
scored their own goals. They did it as
a form of protest for the unfair
decision by referee in the previous
game.
13. Ronaldinho came into limelight when scored 23 goals in a 23-0 game
when he was only
14. Celestine Babayaro, Nigerian born Chelsea player injured his legs while
celebrating his debut goal in a pre-
season match, while Luigi Riva broke
a spectator’s arm with his powerful
shot.
15. The first black football player was Arthur Wharton in the 1800s.
16. Pele was the first to call football “the beautiful game”.
17. Only Americans and Canadians call football “soccer”.
18. England came up with the word “soccer”. It’s a shortened version of
“Association Football” that was
changed to “Assoc Football”. This was
changed to “Soccer”. In 19th century
England, it was popular to add the “-
er” sound to shortened words.
19. In 1964, a referee’s call during a football match in Peru caused a riot
that killed over 300 people.
20. In 1998, lightening killed an entire football team. The catastrophe
occurred in Congo during a match
between the villages of Bena Tshadi
and nearby Basangana.
21. ASEC Abidjan of Cote d’Ivoire was unbeaten for 108 games between
1989 and 1994.
22. The Portuguese boast of scoring the world's greatest goals to game
ratio of 1.77. The team has found the
net an incredible 331 times in just 187
games for Sporting Lisbon between
1937 and 1949 (compared to Messi's
0.82 for Barcelona).
23. Worldwide, there are 27 professional football clubs that take a
Beatles song as their nickname -
Villarreal in Spain being the most
famous (the Yellow Submarines).
24. Neil Armstrong originally wanted to take a football to the moon - but
NASA deemed it to be un-American. 25. The ball used in professional football has remained exactly the
same size and shape for 120 years -
28inches in circumference.
26. More than 80% of the world’s footballs are manufactured in
Pakistan.
27. The first live coverage of a football match was shown on television in
1937. It was a practice match Arsenal
played at Highbury stadium.
28. A total of 20 red cards were shown in a match played between
Sportivo Ameliano and General
Caballero in Paraguay.
29. In 1978, Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson was fired
for swearing at a lady.
30. Ryan Giggs' (of Manchester United) dad was a professional Rugby
League player.