Why is American football called football (as most of the sport involves using your hands)?
Various games where the ball were kicked were popular at various British public schools in the 19th century, but the rules at each school were different - the number of players on a side, whether you could use your hands, and how you could get possession of the ball, for example. In 1863, the schools met to try to hammer out a consistent set of rules. They were partly successful. The majority of the schools established the rules of "Association Football". However, the minority group insisted on rules that allowed rough tackling. They came up with another set of rules for what came to be known by the lead school of the group "Rugby". "Soccer" favoured a round ball that was easy to kick, and Rugby favoured an oblong one that was easy to throw. However, Rugby never had one consistent set of rules. Over the late 19th and early 20th century, both games travelled all over the world. In English speaking North America, the favourite game became something based on "Rugby Union" rules with "downs" while in Australasia, they preferred "Rugby League" rules with "scrums". However, the games were still all called football and required a lot of contact with the foot throughout the game. Although current American football codes have a "snap", it's based on the old Rugby Union practice of kicking the ball backwards to start a new down. However, the influence in the United States and Canada became based on something that was illegal under Rugby codes - throwing the ball forward. What we now call "Canadian football" was clearly more like Rugby Union when the current championship, the Grey Cup was established in 1909. However, the Canadian and American collegiate games started to influence each other and both continued to be called "football". North American footballs got leaner so they would be easier to throw long distances.
Can Belgium possibly win the 2018 World Cup?
Belgium will play Panama,Tunisia and England, so will definitively succeed in the group phase. Poland/Senegal/Colombia/Japan in the round of 16 should not be a real problem either, even if Colombia might be a tricky opponent.The real problems start in quarter final: Germany or Brazil (except if Belgium gets very lucky and one of them under-performs in the group stage), then if Belgium succeeds, Portugal, Spain, France or Argentina in semi-final, all of them being contenders, with more experience than Belgium.Still, Belgium is ranked #5 in FIFA Ranking, while should put them in a contender seat. So how is Belgium expected to do against top FIFA teams like Germany (1), Brazil (2) or Switzerland (8) in quarter finals, Portugal (3), Argentina (4), Spain (6), France (9), Peru (11), Denmark (12), Croatia (15), Mexico (17), Iceland (18) or Sweden (19) in semi-final, Poland (6) or Colombia (13) in round of 16, even England (16) in group stage?And this is the thing: Belgium results against the top 20 teams are… outdated to say the least. Belgium WC Qualification campaign was against Bosnia (41), Greece (45), Estonia (86), Cyprus (92) and Gibraltar (206). Recent friendlies were against Saudi Arabia (69), so you have to go back to the 2016 EURO to see Belgium face strong opponents: Italy (14) and a 0–2 loss, Sweden (19) and a short 1–0 victory, Wales (20) and a 1–3 loss. The 2016 qualification showed two games against Wales (0–0 and a 0–1 loss) and a friendly against France (4–3 victory).But we’re talking games that are 2 to 4 years old, which is history in international soccer. The friendly game against Portugal on June 2nd will give hints about Belgium’s real ability to pass the cap. One thing is sure though, it’s that they have a roster that’s good enough, with high level experience in club, on every line: Courtois and Mignolet as GKs, Kompany, Alderwireld, Vertonghen, Meunier, Vermaelen in defense, Carrasco, Witsel, De Bruyne, Fellaini, Dembele, Nainggolan, Defour in midfield, Hazard, Lukaky, Batshuayi, Mertens forward… not a lot of teams have so much quality on every single line.
What are some of the mind-blowing facts about the FIFA World Cup?
Hi1.Since, FIFA is the French acronym for Federation Internationale de Football Association, in general English, it stands for the International Federation of Football Association. So, for this reason, it is not abbreviated as IFFA.2.Amazingly a nation with foreign coach never won FIFA world cup Every World Cup Has been won by a Coach who is the same Nationality as His team in 20 cups till date3. Other than South Africa (2010) .All Hosts Reached the second Round.4.Last Two reigning champions were knocked out in the group stage Italy in 2010 and Spain in 2014.5.Costa Rica conceded only 2 goals in FIFA 20146.For the first time in 2002 FIFA was held in two countries South korea and Japan7. 3.2 Billion people tuned into watch the FIFA 2014 cup which is half of the total world population8.Each year the FIFA World Cup is commenced, it is hosted in a different country. Another interesting fact about the FIFA World Cup is that the country that hosts the World Cup automatically gets entry to the World Cup.Russia is qualified for 2018 cup9.Brazil is the only nation to have won the maximum titles. They have won a total of 5 titles from 1930 till 2014. The country participated every time the World Cup was held. However, when the FIFA World Cup 1950 was hosted in Brazil, the nation did not win the title. Brazil was defeated by Uruguay by 2-110.The prize money which is given by the FIFA World Cup to the winning team is $35 million. The runner-up team gets $25 million. No wonder, losing the game is also worthwhile. That’s not all. Even the participating teams take home about an $8 million cheque each.11.12.13.14.Amazing right?Thanks for readingEdit 1: Removed a point as I got many comments About it for more check comments section
What months are the active seasons for football, soccer, baseball, basketball, lacrosse, running, etc?
It depends on where you live really. Baseball is typically a spring and summer sport, so in Japan and the US the baseball season is from late March ending in around October. In the southern hemisphere however, the seasons are reversed and in Australia the season starts around November and ends in March. Soccer gets a little more complicated. Some countries such as Costa Rica have both summer and winter championships, others such Britain play primarily in the autumn, winter and spring with the season going from late august / early september to around the May or June. Australia plays in the summer at the highest level (same months as the UK more or less), but lower tier and amateur leagues may play in either summer or winter. In most of the world Basketball is a winter sport starting in October and ending anytime between March and June depending on the league in the northern hemisphere and starting March or April and ending around August or September on the southern hemisphere. Australia again makes it more complicated. The NBL plays during spring and Summer from October to around April. The SEABL runs in wonter from April to around September and amateur leagues run year round.