Football Trivia and Facts
- Soccer originated generally in its present form in Britain.
- The world's oldest club formed in 1857 is Sheffield FC
- Soccer is the most played and most watched sport on Earth
- Soccer is called football in practically every country except America, who call 'Grid Iron' football and football soccer and New Zealand where it is also called soccer.
- Famous soccer rivalries include the Old Firm (Scotland), Manchester derby, London derbies, Milan derby, Real vs Barcelona, and many more.
- Some famous soccer players: Pele, Maradonna, Charlton, Eusebio, Cruyff, Dalglish, Ronaldo, Beckham, Mattheus.
- The sport of Association Football (often referred to as soccer or simply football) is the most popular team sport in the world, in both number of spectators and number of active participants.
- The largest attendance for a soccer match ever was 199,854 people - Brazil v. Uruguay in the World Cup at the Maracana Municipal Stadium, Rio de Janeiro, July 1950.
- In the largest soccer tournament ever, no less than 5,098 teams competed in 1999 for the second Bangkok League Seven-a-Side Competition. Over 35,000 players involved!
- The most goals scored by one player in a single soccer match was 16 - Stephan Stanis (France) playing for Racing Club de Lens in December 1942.
- Based on video evidence, one of the fastest ever scored was in 2.8 seconds by Ricardo Olivera (Uruguay) in December 1998.
- The international governing body of soccer is the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), based in Zurich, Switzerland.
- Diego Maradona was only 16 when he made his soccer debut for Argentina.
- Soccer goalies didn't have to wear different coloured shirts from their teammates until 1913.
- Eusebio scored 46 goals in the European Cup for Benfica.
- Chris Woods once went 1196 minutes without conceding a goal while at Rangers, from between November 26 1986 and January 31 1987.
- Ryan Giggs' dad was a professional Rugby League player.
- In 1973, the entire Galilee team spent the night in jail for kicking their opponents during an Israeli League game.
- His real name is Edson Arantes do Nascimento, But the soccer world knows him as Pele. A native of Brazil, Pele retired as a player in 1977 but is still considered by many the greatest soccer player who ever lived. Since his retirement, he has been a worldwide ambassador for his sport. Wherever soccer is played, the name of Pele will always be magic.
- Soccer is the fastest growing and most popular sport in the world.
- Since 1952, Hungary has won the most gold medals in the Olympics, in soccer.
- Soccer games are controlled by referees.
- The soccer ball's circumference is 27-28 inches. It is made of leather or rubber.
- The first set of rules for soccer were made by the London Football Association in 1863.
- Soccer became a major sport in England and Scotland in 1872.
- The idea of professionalism was introduced in 1885.
- The first full time league was made in 1888.
- In 1908 soccer came into the Olympic games.
- 20 red cards were shown during a 1993 game between Sportivo Ameliano and General Caballero in Paraguay.
- ASEC Abidjan of Cote D'Ivoire went unbeaten for 108 games between 1989 and 1994.
- Carlos Caszely of Chile was the first player red carded in a world cup tournament on June 14, 1974.
- European Teams have reached the final of every World Cup except in 1930 and 1950.
- Goalkeeper Arthur Wharton was the first black professional soccer player. He was born in Ghana and played for English League team Rotherham United in 1889.
- In 1950 India withdrew form the World Cup because FIFA refused to let their team play barefoot.
- In 1954 Turkey knocked out Spain from during a World Cup qualifier by drawing straws. Blindfolded Italian boy Luigi Franco Gemma picked the straws to decide the winner.
- In 1957 with only 30 minutes remaining, Charlton Athleticgame back from a 5-1 deficit to defeat Huddersfield Town 7-6.
- In 1968, Penarol of Urugauy conceded only five goals in 18 games on the way to an unbeaten season.
- In 1998 English referee Martin Sylvester sent himself off after punching a player during a game in the Andover and District Sunday League
- In the 1938 World Cup semifinal, Guiseppe Meazza of Italy's shorts fell down as he was taking a penalty shot. He held his shorts up and calmly scored past Brazil's Valter.
- Jean Langenus of Belgium wore a suit jacket, golfing plus fours and a red striped tie when he refereed the 1930 World Cup final.
- Luigi Riva once broke the arm of a spectator with one of his powerful shots.
- Madagascan team Stade Olympique L'Emryne scored 149 own goals against champions AS Adema in 2002. They repeatedly scored own goals in protest of a refereeing decision in their previous game.
- Michael Laudrup appeared for Real Madrid in a 5-0 win over Barcelona and also Barcelona when they beat Real Madrid 5-0.
- Sir Stanley Matthews never received a booking in his 33 year long career.
- Under Herbert Chapman, The Arsenal changed their name to simply Arsenal in order to appear at the top of the alphabetical list of old Division One clubs.
- The first televised game was an Arsenal practice match at the Highbury ground in 1937.