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Soccer Betting
Soccer Betting - Soccer History - Soccer Tips
Soccer History
The origin of soccer can be found in every corner of geography and history. The Italians, Chinese, Japanese, Egyptians, Ancient Greeks, Toltecs, Native American Indians, Persians, Central Americans, Scottish Clans, Vikings and Assyrians played a ball game long before our era. Later, the Roman harpastum, using a bull's bladder, reached the shores of the Atlantic when the legions conquered Gaul. This game led the way to soule, considered together with the Florentine calcio which emerged during the Renaissance, as the real ancestor of soccer.
Soccer and handball games reach back to the first steps of the human race. Over thousands of years, ancient communities introduced rules to their elementary play of kicking and throwing. Games also embellished religious or tribal festivals. The Chinese played "soccer" games at least 3000 years ago. It is suspected strongly that the shadowy Celtic nations of Europe and the Vikings had rather nasty soccer ceremonies. In South and Central America a game called "Tlatchi" once flourished. The Ancient Greeks and the Romans used soccer games to sharpen warriors for battle. Roman games such as Harpastum or Paganica, which all had elements of kicking or running with the ball, spread Europe-wide with their empire's armies.
Traditional soccer games played throughout Europe in centuries past are still being staged in modern times, especially in the British Isles. Undertones of ancient Celtic pagan ceremonies as well as the influence of old Roman Empire army "games" can be recognized. In later years soccer play was often linked to rural wedding-day celebrations in Western Europe.
Playballs used in traditional “soccer” games came in many different materials, colours and sizes. Rather than being light and inflated, they we're usually stuffed with hair or rags and were heavy. The rules to play “soccer”, if there were any, varied from nation to nation, region to region, village to village but the common elements were in place an age ago – a ball, men and the desire for play and competition.
But it was in England that soccer began to take the shape we now recognize. The games that are now known as Rugby and Association football began in England about halfway through the present century. The English king Edward banned the soccer game because he feared his bowmen were spending too much time away from archery practice in preparation for war against France.
But although the law-abiding mayors, sheriffs, and clerics tried to stamp it out, it had little or no effect. What the people said is not known, but they went on playing soccer. Oliver Cromwell played soccer at Cambridge University in the early 1600s and said the only man he feared on the soccer field was one John Wheelright – who later took his family and his game to America, where his portrait now hangs in the State House looking down on Boston Common where the first soccer game was played in the New World.
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