Watching 22 men kick and chase a small round leather seems a bit crazy yet lovers of the sport can’t afford to miss the opportunity to witness exciting surging wingers, overlapping backs, curling corners, slick inter positional passing and classic goals scored with panache which tells all about the fervour that comes with it. Undoubtedly, the most popular game on earth carries many passionate hearts and can make one a hero or a villain in the eyes of its many followers. The love for it makes entire nations walk off job and at times wake up at odd hours to watch men kick it. “Soccer” it is called, “Football” some prefer it to be, “Le Ballon” but the “Beautiful Game” I will describe it.
The Origin
Just as having different names from deferent roots, so are many views on it`s origination. The Han Dynasty of ancient China, The Japanese ,The Greek, The Romans, Egypt and The English can`t be left without mentioning when tracing it`s origination. Going through several transformations, different cultures had engaged in sports similar to the modern game soccer but no one can really state with certainty when or where soccer began though it is known that the earlier variations of what later became soccer were played almost 3000 years ago.
The Romans is believed played a game that somewhat resembled modern soccer. The early Olympic Games in Rome featured twenty-seven men on a side who completed so vigorously that two-thirds of them had to be hospitalized after a half way through the game.
History also has it that the early beginning of this my favourite game suffered a major setback in England in the early years. In King Edward's reign between 1307-1327’ laws were passed that threatened imprisonment to anyone caught playing soccer.:" For as much as there is a great noise in the city caused by hustling over large balls, from which many evils may arise, which God forbid, we command and forbid on behalf of the King, on pain of imprisonment, such game to be used in the city future." King Edward's proclamation said.
Evidently judged to be vulgar and indecent, soccer was at times suppressed by English sheriffs who followed royal orders describing the game as a useless practice. King Henry IV and Henry VIII passed laws against the sport, and Queen Elizabeth I "had soccer players jailed for a week, with follow-up church penance". Perhaps what the royal family forgot was that even the most descents of jobs in the world had their own hazards.
For the passion of the game, laws failed to stop the sport, which earned official sanction in England by 1681. The game became so popular by 1800s that, even annual contests in northern and middle England could not go on without it and since then it has become so popular in every part of the world to the extent that today including my dear Ghana, soccer has arguably become the most watched and played sport enjoyed by millions of people. The past FIFA World Cups, that had taken place from the 1990`s were watched by an estimated 2 billion people around the globe through broadcasting. This makes soccer, the most watched single sports event in the world not surpassed even by the Olympics.
Popularity
Soccer's worldwide popularity can also be attributed to the fact that millions of people depend on the game for their economic survival. With over 20 million servants in the form of administrators,officials,agents, scouts, commentators,players, commissioners, managers, coaches and betting syndicates ,without doubt if there is any sport that generates huge revenue and engages a large number of human resource than any other sport, then it certainly should be 'the beautiful game'.
Villains and Heroes
It might be seen as just a game however, heroes and villains are made out of it. Imagine the honour that comes with been triumphant in a World Cup final or better still scoring a winning goal on the stroke of injury time in a cagey encounter of a final match. The arousing welcome on return at airports may even come as a second fiddle to the honouring of a national medal or accolade. Legends like Brazil’s Edison Aranates Donacimento, best known in all quarters as “the world Pele” and Argentina’s Diego Armando Maradona bearer of “the hand of God” never won world wars for their respective countries but just by been players of the round leather, they were idolised and worshiped till date. Likewise, several names like Alfredo De Stefano, Puskas, Mitchell Platini, Zico, Johan Cruff, George Oppong Weah, Roger Miller, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho and our own quartet of Tony Yeboah, Abedi Ayew Pele, Stephen Appiah and Michael Essien are now extraordinary household names due to their exploits in the game of soccer.
Again just as a coin is two sided and a thin line between love and hate, Escobar, an ex Columbian international became a villain and was shot dead after a match in which he had scored an own goal. How can a mere game make and unmake people?
Ex English Goalies, David Seaman and David James despite their splendid performances for “The Three Lions” became public enemies in the course of their illustrious carrier. The former nearly became an outcast after conceding what connoisseurs and critics of the game called “a cheap and silly goal’’ in a titanic quarter final encounter with Brazil at the 2002 FIFA World Cup. The latter also had his name changed to “Disaster James”. Why? He was committing series of goalkeeping errors that nearly marred England`s qualification to the Germany 2006 World Cup. A former Liberty Professional FC and Ghanaian Black Stars Player, Patrick Antwi will also be remembered for all the wrong reasons after gifting a goal to Mexico on his debut as a goalie for Ghana in London. Also attesting to the fact that football is not just a game but can be the heart beat of an entire nation are Piere Wome of Cameroon and Kaita of Nigeria telling how imperative the beautiful game can be.
The Money side of the Game
On the economic side, gone are the days when soccer was played for fun and watched on leisure. It is now considered as a whole business entity with a lot of investments in it. There's lots of money in soccer, of course. The financial aspect and benefits of soccer makes several professionals constantly grin to their various banks and provides no hesitations for many billionaires to invest into it. A country like Britain, has witnessed major foreign ownership of her top clubs like Manchester United, Liverpool, West Ham United, New Castle United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Portsmouth and Tottenham Hotspurs. The purchasing of these football clubs have led to foreign investment into the game which have now become one sector of the economy. I don`t want to believe it was for nothing that the likes of the Glazers acquired a club like Manchester United or perhaps for fun that a Russian oil guru Roman Abramovich has pumped over £550m of his personal fortune into my favourite Football Club Chelsea, a club he bought for over £100m in 2004. Aside this foreign ownership of clubs in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, the whooping salaries and signing on fees for players and coaches, attractive participating fees, huge per diems, expensive broadcasting rights and winning bonuses that characterises the modern game can sum up my claim that “there is lots of money in soccer’’.
Religion
What is soccer if not everything that religion should be? In real view, this game serves as a tool for global integration and as such a unifier in many instances. In the words of Ban Kim Moon, the United Nations Secretary, “Football is a universal language we all speak and understand” so it comes as no surprise that his outfit, FIFA and other notable charity organizations has adopted the game of soccer to curb social problems like hunger,poverty, racism, child abuse and illiteracy.Let us also not forget the numerous soccer stars like David Joseph Benjamin Beckham, Christiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Lionel Messi, Didier Drogba, Micheal Essien and others who are serving as ambassadors and hence using 'the beautiful game' as a tool to promote humanitarian works propagated.
With all these social and economic gains soccer brings, I guess if not believe that the perception people including you! (the reader) might have had that the game of soccer is just for leisure and fun has changed and now, you consider it as “The Beautiful Game” as I do.
By ATTAH-EFFAH BADU
Credits-
“History of Soccer”
http://sec3sat.blogspot.com/
Origin and History of the Great Game –Soccer
http://maxinews.co.uk/sport/origin-and-history-of-the-great-game-%E2%80%93soccer-3/
Who Invented Soccer? – A History of the Sport
http://www.nanyamuju.com/who-invented-soccer-a-history-of-the-sport/
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