Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players each who primarily use their feet to propel a ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is to score more goals than the opposing team by moving the ball beyond the goal line into a rectangular-framed goal defended by the opposing team. Traditionally, the game has been played over two 45-minute halves, for a total match time of 90 minutes. With an estimated 250 million players active in over 200 countries and territories, it is often considered the world's most popular sport.
The 1930 FIFA World Cup was the inaugural FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national football teams. It took place in Uruguay from 13 to 30 July 1930. FIFA, football's international governing body, selected Uruguay as the host nation, as the country would be celebrating the centenary of its first constitution and the Uruguay national football team had successfully retained their football title at the 1928 Summer Olympics. All matches were played in the Uruguayan capital, Montevideo, the majority at the Estadio Centenario, which was built for the tournament.
The 1934 FIFA World Cup was the second edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It took place in Italy from 27 May to 10 June 1934.
Santos Futebol Clube, commonly known simply as Santos or Santos FC and nicknamed the Peixe, is a Brazilian sports club based in Vila Belmiro, a bairro in the city of Santos. It is also the team with the most goals in football history. It plays in the Paulistão, the State of São Paulo's premier state league, as well as the Brasileirão, the top tier of the Brazilian football league system.
Football is the most popular sport in Brazil and a prominent part of the country’s national identity. The Brazil national football team has won the FIFA World Cup five times, the most of any team, in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002. Brazil and Germany are the only teams to succeed in qualifying for all the World Cups for which they entered the qualifiers; Brazil is the only team to participate in every World Cup competition ever held. Brazil has also won an Olympic gold medal, at the 2016 Summer Olympics held in Rio de Janeiro and at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Roberto Rivellino is a Brazilian football pundit and former footballer. He was one of the stars of Brazil's 1970 FIFA World Cup winning team. Rivellino currently works as a pundit for Brazilian TV Cultura.
In association football, a bicycle kick, also known as an overhead kick or scissors kick, is an acrobatic strike where a player kicks an airborne ball rearward in midair. It is achieved by throwing the body backward up into the air and, before descending to the ground, making a shearing movement with the lower limbs to get the ball-striking leg in front of the other. In most languages, the manoeuvre is named after either the cycling motion or the scissor motion that it resembles. Its complexity, and uncommon performance in competitive football matches, makes it one of association football's most celebrated skills.
The English word football may mean any one of several team sports, depending on the national or regional origin and location of the person using the word; the unqualified use of the word football usually refers to the most popular code of football in that region. The sports most frequently referred to as simply football are association football, American football, Australian rules football, Canadian football, Gaelic football, rugby league football and rugby union football.
On 29 June 1950, the United States defeated England 1–0 in a World Cup group match at Estádio Independência in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
The Brazil women's national football team represents Brazil in international women's football and is run by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF). It has participated in eight editions of the FIFA Women's World Cup, finishing as runner-up in 2007, and seven editions of the Copa América Femenina.
"The Beautiful Game" is a nickname for association football. It was popularised by Brazilian footballer Pelé, although the exact origin of the phrase is disputed. Stuart Hall, an English football commentator, used it as far back as 1958. Hall admired Peter Doherty when he went to see Manchester City play at Maine Road and used the term "The Beautiful Game" to describe Doherty's style of play. During his career, the Brazilian footballer Ronaldinho was an exponent of the "Joga Bonito" style of play. Although made famous around the world, the phrase jogo bonito is not used in Brazil, whereas the term futebol-arte means the same.
The División Mayor del Fútbol Profesional Colombiano, also known by the truncation DIMAYOR, is an organization responsible for organizing and operating professional football leagues and tournaments in Colombia. It administers the top two levels of professional football leagues in Colombia, the Primera A and the Primera B, as well as the Colombian Superliga and Copa Colombia, Colombia's domestic football cup.
Women's football is not as popular in Brazil as men's football, although it has increased in popularity since the 2000s.
The history of Santos Futebol Clube goes from the football club's founding in 1912 and up to current time. Santos FC, also known simply as "Santos" and familiarly as "Peixe", is based in Santos, São Paulo, Brazil. The team was founded on April 14, 1912, by the initiative of three sports enthusiasts from Santos: Raimundo Marques, Mário Ferraz de Campos, and Argemiro de Souza Júnior. In 1962, the club participated in their first of many South American competitions, and has since amassed seven CONMEBOL trophies and a quadruple. In 1971, Santos co-founded the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the top-tier in Brazil football, along with a string of other clubs.
Santos Futebol Clube is a Brazilian professional football club, based in Santos, Brazil. They play in the Campeonato Paulista, São Paulo's state league, and the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A or Brasileirão, Brazil's national league, and are one of the only three clubs to have never been relegated, along with São Paulo and Flamengo. Santos was a founding member of the Clube dos 13 group of Brazil's leading football clubs.
Santos FC is a football club based in Santos, that competes in the Campeonato Paulista, São Paulo's state league, and the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A or Brasileirão, Brazil's national league. The club was founded in 1912 by the initiative of three sports enthusiasts from Santos by the names of Raimundo Marques, Mário Ferraz de Campos, and Argemiro de Souza Júnior, and played its first friendly match on June 23, 1914. Initially Santos played against other local clubs in the city and state championships, but in 1959 the club became one of the founding members of the Taça Brasil, Brazil's first truly national league. As of 2010, Santos is one of only five clubs never to have been relegated from the top level of Brazilian football, the others being São Paulo, Flamengo, Internacional and Cruzeiro.
Os Santásticos is the nickname for the group of Santos Futebol Clube players coached by Lula and Antoninho that won a total of 25 titles between 1959 and 1974, including two Copa Libertadores. Often considered one of the strongest teams ever assembled in any sport, scoring over 3000 goals during this period, with an average of over 2.5 goals per match.
The Adidas Tango 12 was the official match association football of the UEFA Euro 2012, with variants being used for the 2012 Summer Olympics. The ball is named after the original and successful Adidas Tango family of footballs from the late 1970s, but the construction of the Tango 12 is completely different. Variations of the ball have been used in other contemporary competitions including the Africa Cup of Nations and the Summer Olympics – Adidas has not categorised these football as the "Adidas Tango 12" family, however they are listed here due to their similar design.
Association football is the world's most popular sport and is worth US$600 billion worldwide. By the end of the 20th century it was played by over 250 million players in over 200 countries. Around the world, the sport is played at a professional level by professional footballers, and millions of people regularly go to football stadiums to follow their favourite football teams, while billions more watch the sport on television or on the internet. Football has the highest global television audience in sport. The sport had amateur origins and evolved into the modern professional competition.
The Game of Our Lives: The Meaning and Making of English Football is a book by David Goldblatt, first published in 2014. It looks at the development of football in England from the 1990s onwards, and at how the footballing culture reflected changes in wider English culture. The book was named the 2015 William Hill Sports Book of the Year.
