Football Football is the name given to
a number of different team sports. The most popular of these world
wide is association football (also known as soccer). The English
word "football" is also applied to American football, Australian
rules football, Canadian football, Gaelic football, rugby football
(rugby union and rugby league), and related games. Each of these
codes (specific sets of rules) is to a greater or lesser extent
referred to as "football" and sometimes "footy" by its followers.
These games involve: a large spherical or prolate spheroid
ball, which is itself called a football. a team scoring goals
and/or points, by moving the ball to an opposing team's end of the
field and either into a goal area, or over a line. the goal
and/or line being defended by the opposing team. players being
required to move the ball mostly by kicking and — in some codes
— carrying and/or passing the ball by hand. goals and/or points
resulting from players putting the ball between two goalposts.
offside rules, in most codes, restricting the movement of players.
in some codes, points are mostly scored by players carrying
the ball across the goal line. in most codes players scoring
a goal must put the ball either under or over a crossbar between
the goalposts. players in some codes receiving a free kick after
they take a mark/make a fair catch. Many of the modern games
have their origins in England, but many peoples around the world
have played games which involved kicking and/or carrying a ball
since ancient times. Read article:
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The FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup,
commonly known as the FA Cup, is a knockout cup competition in English
football, run by and named after The Football Association. (See
National Football Cups, below, for similar competitions worldwide.)
The FA Cup is the oldest football competition in the world,
commencing in 1871-72. Because it involves clubs of all standards
playing against each other there is the possibility for "giant-killers"
from the lower divisions to eliminate top clubs from the tournament,
though lower division teams rarely reach the final. A record 687
teams were accepted into the FA Cup in 2006-2007. In comparison,
the League Cup can involve only the 92 members of the Football League
(which organises the competition) and the FA Premier League.
The name "FA Cup" usually refers to the English men's tournament.
The equivalent competition for women's teams is the FA Women's Cup.
The current holders of the FA Cup are Liverpool F.C. who beat
West Ham United F.C. on penalty shootout after drawing in the 2006
final, on 13 May 2006. However, neither side will appear in this
year's final as both teams were beaten before the later rounds.
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Each different code of football uses a different
ball which belong to one of two different basic shapes:
A
sphere used in association football (soccer) as well as Gaelic football;
An approximate prolate spheroid, which may be either: those
with more rounded ends used in rugby union, rugby league and Australian
rules football the more pointed type used in American football
and Canadian football
Dimensions The ball used
in football (soccer) is called a football or soccer ball. Law 2
of the game specifies the ball to be an air-filled sphere with a
circumference of 68–70 cm (or 27–28 inches), a weight of 410–450
g (or 14–16 ounces), inflated to a pressure of 60–110 kPa (or 8.5–15.6
psi), and covered in leather or "other suitable" material. [1] The
weight specified for a ball is the dry weight: older balls often
became significantly heavier in the course of a match played in
wet weather. The standard ball is a Size 5. Smaller sizes exist;
Size 3 is standard for team handball; others are used in underage
games or as novelty items. Construction A truncated icosahedron
compared to an association football/soccer ball. Most modern footballs
are stitched from 32 panels of waterproofed leather or plastic:
pigskin, 12 regular pentagons and 20 regular hexagons. The 32-panel
configuration is similar to the polyhedron known as the truncated
icosahedron, except that it is more spherical, because the faces
bulge due to the pressure of the air inside. The first 32-panel
ball was marketed by Select in the 1950s in Denmark. This configuration
became common throughout Continental Europe in the 1960s, and was
publicised worldwide by the Adidas Telstar, the official ball of
the 1970 World Cup.
Older balls were usually stitched from
18 oblong non-waterproof leather panels, similar to the design of
modern volleyballs and Gaelic footballs, and laced to allow access
to the internal air bladder. This configuration is still common,
as are more novel ones, such as the 26-panel Mitre PRO 100T, and
the 2006 FIFA World Cup football, the 14-panel Adidas +Teamgeist
-a truncated octahedron. There are also indoor footballs, which
are made of one or two pieces of plastic. Often these have designs
printed on them to resemble a stitched leather ball.
There
are only thirteen different possibilities for suitable spherical
footballs. This includes the more football of pentagons and hexagons
that we use today. It is predicted that in 2010, a newly shaped
football will be in use which will have 92 leather flaps the majority
of which will be triangles and the rest will be squares and octagons.
Patterns The archetype, black pentagon/white hexagon design
was intended for maximum visibility on monochrome television sets.
It is still used for generic balls and symbolic representations
of the game. However, premium branded balls have other more elaborate
patterns. The Nike Total 90 Aerow has rings intended to aid goalkeepers
to determine the spin on the ball. "Official replicas" of the Teamgeist
have its 14-panel pattern superimposed on a cheaper 32-panel ball.
The official ball of the UEFA Champions League, the Adidas Finale
has stars on the ball. Older balls were monochrome: originally brown;
and later white, especially for floodlit matches. Brightly-coloured
balls are used on snow-covered pitches. Read article:
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Child labour About 80% of association
footballs are made in Pakistan. 75% of these (60% of all world production)
are made in the city of Sialkot. In the past child labour was often
used in the production of the balls. In 1996, during the European
championship, activists decided to press this issue. This eventually
led to the Atlanta Agreement, which forced ball manufacturers to
make sure no child labour was involved in the fabrication of their
products. This also led to a centralisation of production, which
on the one hand would make it easier for the Independent Monitoring
Association for Child Labour - an organization created to
watch over the Atlanta Agreement - to make sure no child labour
occurred, on the other hand often forced workers to commute further
to get to work. Now the production takes place primarily in small
workshops and factories and is now totally Child-Labour free.
2006 World Cup The official FIFA World Cup footballs
for Germany 2006 matches were made in Thailand. Adidas, who have
provided the official match balls for the tournament since 1970,
used "thermally bonded" machine pressed balls instead of traditionally
stiched balls. |