Soccer and the World Cup
Soccer is one of the most popular sports in the world. There are soccer fans in almost every country. Soccer’s biggest tournament is the World Cup. This competition takes place every four years in a different country and is watched on television, and in stadiums, by millions of people around the world.
As with many sports, it is not known for sure how soccer began. Many believe that the earliest games were played in China and Japan over 1,000 years ago. The game we know today probably started in England. Many of the earliest soccer games were very rough, and for years, British royalty tried to ban the sport. They were not successful.
In 1857, the first soccer team was created in Sheffield, England. In 1863, eleven English teams met to form the first Football Association. In 1904, a world association was created, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). Twenty-six years later, in 1930, Uruguay hosted the first World Cup competition.
In the World Cup Finals, thirty-two teams from different countries compete to win the championship. In the first competition in 1930, only thirteen teams played. The winner of the Jules Rimet Trophy that year was Uruguay. After the 1938 games in France, the World Cup was not played again until 1950, this time in Brazil.
The 2002 World Cup championships were special. It was the first time the games were played in Asia. It was also the first time that two countries, Japan and Korea, hosted the World Cup together. It was a sporting championship to remember
(ANDERSON, J. Neil. Active Skills for Reading: Book 1.Heinle, 2003. P.86)
When was the first World Cup competition?
