Yet again I have failed to update my Friday Feeling post on an actual Friday, but for those of you who have been wondering where it is... better late than never, right?
What with the European Cup final on tomorrow night, there could only really be one theme for this week's post - football. As I'm sure some of you have gleaned already, it's not my favourite sport but hey, millions of people disagree with me so it's definitely worth a mention. As you British readers will know, England got knocked out last week and my other team to support (Germany) is also out of the running. Which means that tomorrow's final is between Italy and Spain. I don't have any close Italian friends but I do have some Spanish ones so, for the sake of friendship, I am supporting Spain in tomorrow's match. Not that I'll be watching it... Sorry for any Italians who I may inadvertently upset by announcing that. Anyway, on with what I found on Etsy today:
Football was actually invented in China and there are writings about it dating back as far a 476 BC
Gordon Ramsey, Julio Iglesias and Albert Camus were all nearly professional footballers but due to injury / illness none of them continued their careers.
Aston Villa football club was actually started by cricketers from the Villa Cross cricket team in 1874 - apparently the team were discussing how to keep fit during the winter months when they spotted a football match happening in a nearby field and decided it was a great solution.
In 1975 a football match between Uruguay and Chile was abandoned after 19 players were sent off.
In 1980 the Liberian team narrowly escaped imprisonment when they drew 0-0 against Gambia. They had been threatened with imprisonment by the Head of State if they lost. Although I've also read that the former Zaire were threatened with exile if they lost by more than 3 goals to Brazil so I'm not sure if I believe either of them!
Apparently in 1950 the Indian team withdrew from the world cup when they realised that the team were required to wear boots and were not allowed to play barefoot.
The word soccer comes from university slang - it was an abbreviation for association football.
In 1990 the entire Albanian team were held in custody at Heathrow airport after a language misunderstanding: they thought that 'duty free' meant help yourself...
In 2001 the game of football was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize due to its ability to bring nations together.
In 2001 Archie Thompson scored a whopping 13 goals in Australia's 31-0 defeat of American Samoa.
2 comments:
What great facts about football....Well, Soccer. I'm from the U.S. LOL
That was one 'fact' I decided to leave out, hoping everyone already knew it…
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