Soccer is the most watched and most played sport in the world. But it has not always been such a success and there were hard times in the history of soccer. The roots of this game date back to the third century when the earliest sport somewhat resembling the modern game had originated in China. A similar game was played by Romans as well.
No one could imagine that the game will be so popular in the future, so ancient historians had no interest in keeping various interesting facts and origins of the sport for descendants. So it is hard to say how soccer managed to spread to so many countries and continents. But when the sport reached England, its reputation was very bad among the royalty. There were even laws passed forbidding its play. In 14th century laws against soccer were passes by King Edward. The king did not like that the game made a lot of noise by both players and watchers. So, anyone caught playing was put into prison.
English sheriffs also suppressed the game following royal orders. The game was considered to be vulgar and useless. The laws against the sport were also passed by other royalties like Henry IV, Henry VIII as well as Queen Elizabeth I.
Even though there were so many laws forbidding the sport at different times throughout the history, they did not manage to stop soccer. By 1681 it was officially legalized in England. And by 1800s the sport became very popular but due to the absence of official rules the games rarely ended peacefully.
The earliest known rules were created by Eton College in 1815, somewhat stopping the chaos that prevailed previously in the game. Time passed and the game slowly developed more standardized rules known as the Cambridge rules. These rules and regulations were then adopted by many colleges and groups that played.
Even though soccer was initially banned in England, this is where it was spread to other countries from. The latest World Cup had more followers than even the Olympic Games. Sure, the history of soccer had some tough times and instability. But today the game experiences more popularity than football, baseball and basketball combined.
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