Footballreturn

"During the football World Cup, the whole world is mad about the same thing."

"Football brings people together from all over the world."

Football is the most popular sport on the planet and raises passions everywhere, but most of all in Brazil and Italy. It was first played in China, but it was in England in the 19th century that the rules were fixed, for example having 11 players in a team.

The last World Cup of the 20th century was played in France in 1998 and France were the winners. The first Word Cup of the new millennium was hosted jointly by Japan and South Korea in 2002. Holland did not qualify to take part. France, the reigning champions, were defeated by Senegal and did not survive the group stage. England lost in the quarter finals to Brazil, who went on to beat Germany in the final. In Germany, in 2006, the French beat Brazil to reach a semi-final, but they were then beaten on penalties by Italy in the final.

The first World Cup competition was the brainchild of Jules Rimet, a Frenchman, and was played in Montevideo in Uruguay (South America) in 1930. In those days, air transport was uncommon and used only to carry mail. Players and their few supporters from the European countries that had taken up the challenge (Belgium, France, Romania and Yugoslavia) had to travel by sea: a ship’s deck was an unusual pitch for training on!

The first goal in the first World Cup was scored by the Frenchman, Lucien Laurent, and the first winner was Uruguay.

"The ball is round like the world and the pitch square like a picture of the sky. The ball flies above us like the sun as the two teams face each other."

The “Stade de France” (The French national stadium in Paris) looks like a spaceship and can hold 80,000 spectators. It opened with the 1998 football World Cup. It is also used for rugby, athletics and huge pop concerts.