Football or soccer2 from British English football, translated as football 3 is a team sport played between two sets of eleven players each and some referees who make sure that the rules are met correctly. It is widely considered the most popular sport in the world, as it is practiced by 270 million people It is also known as football association or football association, name derived from The Football Association, the world's first official federation in this sport and used that name to distinguish it from other sports that include the word
"soccer" or "soccer" .5 In some English-speaking countries it is also known as soccer, an abbreviation for association, since the name of football in those countries is mostly associated with other sports with that denomination (mainly in the United States where the name football applies to American football, a totally different sport).
The pitch is rectangular of natural or artificial grass, with a goal or arch on each side of the field. It is played by a ball that must be moved across the field with any part of the body other than the arms or hands, and mostly with the feet (hence its name). The objective is to introduce it into the goal or opposite goal, an action called scoring a goal. The team that achieves the most goals after the match, lasting 90 minutes, is the winner of the match.
The modern game was reinvented in England after the formation of the Football Association, whose rules of 1863 are the basis of the sport today. The governing body of football is the International Federation of Football Association, best known for its acronym FIFA. The most prestigious international soccer competition is the Soccer World Cup, organized every four years by that organization. This event is the most famous and the one with the largest number of spectators in the world, doubling the audience of the Olympic Games.
