In a word

In the week that's in it there can only be one word today – soccer. With the World Cup beginning in Brazil's Sao Paolo on Thursday, continuing to the final in Rio de Janeiro on July 13th, and with all of us indomitable Irishry from the President down, hugely, emotionally involved with cheering on our newest best friends – England – it would seem churlish, even, this week to overlook soccer.

My research findings have fascinated even me. I would never have thought it but the word soccer began its life with two parents Football and Association. And so association football was born. Soon this was abbreviated to “association” which morphed into “assoc”, becoming “socca” to “socker” and eventually to “soccer”.

The Football Association was formed in 1863 on Great Queen Street in London and is the oldest football association in the world. Up to then football had been played according to different rules but with no general agreement.

That changed following the 1863 London meeting and, as the saying goes, the rest is history. At that meeting they drew up the rules of “the beautiful game” more or less as we know them around the world today.

The world's oldest football competition is the FA Cup which has been contested since 1872 and England is home too to the world's first football league, founded in 1888.

The first World Cup took place in Uruguay in 1930, and Uruguay became first World Cup champions when they defeated Argentina before 93,000 people in Montevideo, Uruguay's capital.

The current World Cup Champions are Spain who won the 2010 tournament in South Africa. Of the 19 World Cups to date, eight national teams have won the title, World Cup Champions.

Brazil has won it five times and are the only team to have played in all 19 tournaments. Italy has won four times, West Germany three times, Argentina and Uruguay twice each with England, France, and Spain winning once each.

As we speak, so to speak, 32 teams are lining up to compete for the title in Brazil over the next month.

Today soccer is the world’s most popular sport, played by an estimated 250 million players in more than 200 countries, not counting wherever two or three kids are gathered with a ball. It is also the most watched sport in the world, followed by billions. Literally.

inaword@irishtimes.com