SOCCER TRIVIA
Here is some interesting Soccer World Trivia ;
England players first wore their names on the back of their shirts during the 1992 European Championships in Sweden.
Goal nets were first used in 1891.
The red and yellow card system was invented by English referee Ken Aston, a school headmaster.
Early in the history of football, team sizes ranged from 15 to 21. It was not until 1870 that the 11-player team was standardized.
Shirt swapping was once officially prohibited in 1986 because FIFA did not want players to 'bare their chests' on the field.
In England and many other part of the world the game is called football, for obvious reasons. However, in countries like the US, South Africa and Australia they use the term 'soccer'. Where does this come from? The term was coined when someone asked Charles Wreford Brown if he was a Rugger (a Rugby player), to which he replied, no, Soccer! taking the phrase from Association, SOC, and added the -er.
Football is the world's most popular sport. The World Cup is estimated to be watched by a home viewing audience of over 30 billion people. (this tallies more than the world's population, this figure is an 'accumulated' audience, meaning that when people watched more than one game, (which most people did) they were counted each time).
The first world cup soccer match kicked off on July 13th, 1930 with France beating Mexico 4 to 1.
There were a total of 13 teams in the first World Cup. Besides the host Uruguay, there were Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, France, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, the United States and Yugoslavia.
Did you know that South American and European countries have won the World Cup 9 times and 9 times respectively. There has been no other continent that has produced a World Cup Champion.
World Cup Winners (total number by country)
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Brazil 5
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Italy 4
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Germany 4
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Uruguay 2
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Argentina 2
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England 1
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France 1
Who says there is no such thing as home advantage? Out of the 20 World Cups so far, six have been won by the host country.
The most common score in a World Cup final match is 1-0.
Five teams have been unbeaten but not the champions in the same finals. Those unbeaten teams are: Scotland in 1974 (1 win, 2 draws), Brazil in 1978 (4 wins, 3 draws), England in 1982 (3 wins, 2 draws), Cameroon in 1982 (3 draws), Belgium in 1998 (3 draws).
The highest attendance at a World Cup match was 199,854 at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janerio for the 1950 decider between Uraguay and Brazil.
The most common surname of World Cup players is Gonzalez or Gonzales.
Brazil are the only country to have appeared in every World Cup final from 1930 to 2010.
The 20 FIFA World Cup tournaments have been won by eight different national teams. Brazil have won five times, and they are the only team to have played in every World Cup tournament.
No host country had ever been eliminated in the first round of the FIFA World Cup - until South Africa in 2010.
The average passes per team in the 2014 FIFA World Cup was 396.
No European team has ever won a World Cup played outside of Europe ... that is, until Germany broke this trend to become the World Champions in 2014 and in Brazil, South America! The match was played against Argentina.
The 2014 World Cup Final was played in the Ëstadio do Maracana, in Brazil. The Stadium was renovated for the World Cup event with a carrying capacity of 74,738 persons.
The next World Cup in 2018 is to be played in Russia it will be the 21st FIFA World Cup Tournament.
