Soccer has been a whole lot more popular in the United States in the last 3 decades. Over 3 million children from the ages of 5 to 19 are currently playing soccer in youth leagues over the United States.
Soccer started in England sometime around the 1850’s; initially it was a game which was played exclusively by aristocrats. It was played in boarding schools and private clubs all over the country. Due to the fact that the sport is easy to play and cheap, it became a sport for the masses. Nowadays its one of the most popular sports in existence.
In 1863, the London Football Association was created and ever since then it was responsible for standardizing the rules of the game of soccer all over Europe. Due to its efforts it took less than two decades before professionals all over Europe were enmeshed in the game.
Spain, Germany, Italy and France all took up the game of soccer before the beginning of the 20th century. As interest in the game spread all around the world, interest in formal competitions grew as well. 1900 saw the first soccer game being played at the Olympics and medals were introduced 8 years from this time. However, professional soccer players were absent from the Olympic Games for about 8 decades.
1904 saw the birth of The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), years after this in 1930 the first World Cup competition was held. The World Cup is a tournament in round-robin style which puts teams of different nations against each other every four years. The World Cup has become a truly international event with over 200 countries seeking participation annually. However out of all these countries only 24 are eventually allowed to compete.
The United States took a very long time to enter into the real soccer fray; however the U.S Soccer Federation (USSF) was formed as early as 1913. Despite this fact, most Americans had their own preferences in another kind of sport – American football. It was not until 1975, when the world’s most famous soccer player Pele joined the N.Y Cosmos, that the sport became somewhat popular in the United States. Due to his presence, a lot of people became more involved in the sport and it became very popular. However when Pele retired, the North American Soccer League became less popular and it finally dissolved in 1985.
However, in 1994 when the men’s World Cup competition was held in the United States, soccer became popular once more in the United States. Major League Soccer was then founded in 1996 with 10 teams and 32 games per season. An excess of 3 million fans watched the entire playoffs. 1991 saw the introduction and participation of women in the game with the Women’s World Cup Competition launched for the first time ever.
Youth soccer has become rather popular in the United States today. Nowadays you have sports teams and leagues in communities all over America. From players in grade school to semi-professional high school teams and those in colleges. Different players and competitions are available for competition from spring to fall. U.S Youth Soccer which is a division of U.S.S.F boasts of at least three million players annually.
