What do you think of when talking about football? A World Cup? TikTok song? Famous footballers like David Beckham, Lionel Messi, or Cristiano Ronaldo? Do you feel like we have seen it in our lives more than before? If yes, you are correct. Over the recent years, football has become the most well-known sport in the world. After The 2022 World Cup, it has risen its reputation. Let me introduce you to the sport called ‘football’, association football, or soccer.
Football is a game in which two teams of 11 players, using any part of their bodies except their hands and arms, try to move the ball into the opposing team’s goal. Only the goalkeeper is allowed to handle the ball within the penalty area around the goal. The team that scores more goals wins. You may wonder why football is now the most popular sport in the world? Why is it being played in every country around the world? Especially in England, where you may have seen the large fans from the popular clubs such as Liverpool and Manchester United, or the Premier League. Let’s get deeper into the history of football.
Football popularity over the recent years has risen to the point where we are able to say that almost everyone knows football. Before this sport has come to this point, what made football so popular? The way football is practiced and played by individuals is impressive. The fact that football is considered to be an inexpensive sport is one of the major factors supporting its popularity. The accessibility for everyone to play football anywhere and anytime that they don’t even need to own an actual football ball. And beyond that the other thing that you need is space, however it doesn’t require a wide open space that you could play in the garage, park, or on the beach. You may have heard some stories about the professional players who also formed in this environment when they began playing. Moreover, the feeling when people see the round object whenever the time or place, they feel like they want to kick or move it with their feet. This is why football is so popular that it seems like it allows itself to be popular.
Nowadays, football does not only become admired among men, but also women. After the 2014 world cup in Brazil, women tended to be more interested in this sport with how the game is easy to watch and understand. The power of the media and its popularity, that is hard to resist, spreads knowledge about football attracting more people to watch football.
How about you guys? What leads you to this inspirational sport? For me, I would personally say it is my friend who introduced me to watching football. At that time when I first began watching football I can not deny that it was not too hard to watch even though my knowledge about restrictions in football is considered to be little. Moreover, the more I watch the more I enjoy and seek for the general football rules.
What makes football so popular?
Moving on to one of the main factors that has changed football into such a well-known sport is social media. It impacts the football team, coaches, players, and even the watchers. Social media has introduced a whole new aspect of possibilities for football fans. However, there are the pros and the cons of social media that impact football. For example, ESL(European Super League) is the ideal break-away league for the European clubs to play more often in order to earn more income. However, fans and even the governments hated this idea because they thought this would ruin the UEFA Champions League. They expressed their unacception through social media, leading to a large group of protesters in front of stadiums. Soon teams started to drop the ESL and apologize to fans. This is one of the examples that social media has held great power in football that they couldn’t ignore. Football, somehow, is a business. It can often be seen that many business people are buying clubs. Sometimes, the decisions they make don’t sit right with the fans such as ESL case, match locations, or ticket prices. Social media is one of the tools that support fans’ voices to be heard by the owners.
Moreover, social media has pros that support many jobs for football lovers across the platforms. YouTube, FaceBook and Instagram are the most common platforms, allowing the creators to create content and fame in what they fancy. Some channels have a large number of followers that have enough impact to get interviews with footballers or coaches. This led to the cult-following that these channels offer the latest football news rather than the mainstream televisions. Instagram has also aimed many opportunities in this field with how it is more to the point that other platforms. 433, a football account owned by an entrepreneur that has up to 61 million followers, and that also includes many famous footballers like Cristiano Ronaldo, Erling Braut Haaland, and Mohamed Salah, even has its own football awards show. The possibilities in football from social media are endless. You are allowed to create your own reputation doing jobs about something you love.
The football community has changed throughout the years by social media. There are both positives and negatives of social media that could be for the better and for worse.
It has opened up new opportunities to embrace for fans and players to become closer through social media. This attracts more fans now more than before as it is opening up the convenience to communicate or consume the content that is provided by individual players. Social media allows fans to follow the content from individuals that we are able to choose as you can see that many of the footballers do have social media, to be in touch with their fans. For instance, Belgian Chelsea striker Mitchy Batshuayi manages to have more personal connection with fans through all of his social media platforms. He is replying and talking with his fans on a daily basis whether it will be good or bad. His social media responses keep the fans eagerly waiting for his next reply as he seems to break the stereotype footballers have received by saying what the fans want to hear.
On the other hand, there are also negative impacts from social media that can cause a mental impact for the players. The free speech allows opinions, that don’t always be positive, to be sent to players directly more than before. For instance, football players face risk increase in depression, according to an article and comment published online. The pressure can affect the player’s mental health and their performance. Yet social media still brings joy to players, the clubs, and the audience. When a match is draining then, the player scores, they will do a goal celebration; that uniquely comes from individual players, to release their emotions and show spirit for the team as you can see the viral celebration from Portugal player Cristiano Ronaldo “siuuuu”
Social media is supporting the development of football. Now that many live streaming events such as playing of a matches, training, and updates from the club can be easily seen by the fans, this makes football even more passionate. Imagine you are able to see from the footballers’ perspectives. Being in the same point of view and feelings for what it feels like to go on a match. That is not what you will usually experience, but with social media you can! Or thinking about how easy football lovers can search for a significant football moment, or even a funny meme of players. This creates the connection between players and fans. Moreover, studies have shown that the more that fans and players engage with each other, the larger the influence and effect they have on audiences.
And how does football also turn out to be popular among women? Football is played internationally not like some other sports. For example, cricket is often played in the UK, or baseball is popular in the USA, Europe, and some areas of Asia. Besides, football is known as “The Beautiful Game” with its appealing emotions from the crowd and everything else. It is a sport for all people with no physical requirements for playing football. In addition, football has no gender limits. The rules of the football games are the same both for men and women. The Women’s World Cup is notable as it is the largest women’s sporting event ever.
What do you think of history and overall of this sport? Sounds fun and interesting isn’t it? Now let me introduce you to how to watch football101 for beginners.
Things you should know before:
First, a football match is all about scoring more goals than your opponent. The team that scores more goals wins. If both teams score an equal amount of goals the match ends as a draw. In the league system, winning the match gives you three points and drawing gives you one point. Each football team consists of 11 players with ten of them playing outfield and one being the goalkeeper, the only player who can handle the ball up to only 6 seconds in their own box. However, the goalkeeper is not allowed to pick up the ball if his teammates pass the ball by their feet but any other non foot body, it is ok for the goalkeeper to pick it up. The only thing that is forbidden for the outfield players to touch the ball is the arms and their hands.
Second, when the ball leaves the pitch by rolling over one of the lines, the game is temporarily stopped and there’s a throw. If team A touches the ball last, team B gets to throw. However, if the ball goes over one of the goal lines it depends on who touches the ball last. If it was the attacking team it’s the same team, goal kick taken within the box. Whereas the opposing team gets a corner if the defending team touched the ball last. The corner is taken from the corner spots.
Third the game duration, if there has been many breaks due to substitutions, injuries, or other prolonged stoppages. The time will add one to five minutes per half. If the score is equal by the end 90 minutes, the game is a draw. But if you have to find the winner, you’ll have to play extra halves of 15 minutes each. However, if there’s still a tie the game will be decided by a team penalty shootout. Another important thing that you need to know is once a player substituted, he can’t come back on in the same match.
Fourth, another important aspect that you need to know is fouls. The referee can blow a foul if they find that you break the rules whether that is violent conduct or something as simple as handling the ball. If the team commits a foul, the other team gets a free kick in two variations: direct free kick, where the player can shoot directly at goal, indirect free kick, where the ball has to touch another teammate before you are allowed to score. If a free kick is committed inside the penalty area, the opposing team will get a penalty where the ball can be shot from only 11 meters away and only the goalkeeper is allowed to be inside the area to save. If a player committed a serious foul, he will get a yellow card and if you get a second yellow card in the same match you will receive a red card, in which case you have to leave the pitch without being replaced by any players. There are also the possibilities that players can receive the red card without getting the yellow card before if they are being naughty or disrespectful.
Last but not least, the offside rule, this seems to be the hardest rules in football to understand, but with me I will make it easier for you.
The player will be in an offside position if any of your body parts that you can score with are in the opponent’s half of the pitch. If the players receive the ball while they are offside, the opposing team will get a freekick.
Nevertheless, the main game is about the team that scores more goals wins. And the other important things that made football sport beautiful is the performance of fantastic tackle, flawless slide, or a unique and spiritual goal celebration that has form it into “The Beautiful Game”
