Soccer

Football, or soccer as it is known across the Atlantic, is easily the most popular sport in the world today. The rules are extremely simple to understand, and you only need a ball to start playing. The aim is to put the ball into the back of the opposition goal, while ensuring that your own stays protected. The simplicity of the game allows it to cut across all barriers of society. Be it a small boy playing barefoot in the favelas of Brazil, or the rich kid playing with fancy shoes in a posh European locality, they both love the game, and derive immense pleasure from it. Even if two people do not speak the same language, they will have no major problems in coordinating with each other on the football pitch.

There are a variety of positions that one can play in. If you are well built, possess excellent reflexes and feel that you can be a Rock of Gibraltar between the sticks, then you could be a goalkeeper. With good heading, tackling and marking abilities, you may be best suited for the role of a defender. In the centre of the park, you can be an attacking midfielder or a defensive one. A winger is expected to be pacy and deliver good crosses. Upfront, you might have one striker to be the fox in the box, while the other can attempt shots from the edge of the area and run rings around defenders.

Football allows an athlete to display a wide array of skills. Watching technically gifted players at work is pleasing to the eye. For example, watch Ronaldinho with the ball at his feet. He has sublime ball control, and can bamboozle opposition defenders with the amount of tricks he has in his arsenal. Or imagine a ball sent from the foot of a midfielder, splitting the opposition defense the way a knife cuts through butter. The striker receives it, cleanly goes past any remaining defender and the goalkeeper, and coolly taps it in. If a player possesses power and accuracy, then set pieces are for him. A well positioned, powerful freekick leaves the goalkeeper with no chance. You can also make the ball swerve in the air and turn the other way at the last minute, making the keeper look like a fool.

Fitness is of utmost importance on the football pitch, as you have to constantly keep moving around the pitch for the better part of ninety minutes. Footballers have specialized training and fitness programs these days. Their diet and health are regularly checked. Accidents, like the deaths of Marc Vivien Foe, Miklos Feher and Phil O'Donnell must be avoided at all costs.

FIFA, the sport's governing body has 208 members at the time of writing this article. The United Nations has 192, and the International Olympic Committee has 205. The FIFA World Cup, the game's quadrennial extravaganza gets an audience twice the size of the Olympic Games. Football has universal appeal, unlike other sports like cricket, hockey and basketball which are restricted to a few countries.

The atmosphere at a football stadium needs to be seen to be believed. The sheer joy of watching one's team breaking the deadlock by scoring a goal, or equalising in the dying seconds is something which cannot be described in words. In games between bitter rivals like Barcelona and Real Madrid, or derbies like the Milan one, the fans are at their boisterous best. Tensions run high before such games, and rival supporters often get into scuffles with each other. Millions of dollars are staked on these matches, and football betting sites witness huge spurts in activity during this period.

Many online sports betting sites focus on football. Betting is legal in many countries where the game is popular, such as England. Sports betting, casino and poker sites and companies have found that sponsoring a club with a devout fan base makes good business sense. Football games are televised all over the world, and have a large audience. It allows the companies to make inroads into other countries, and improve brand recollection figures. Blackburn Rovers are sponsored by Bet24, and sport the Bet24 logo on their jerseys. The Portuguese first division has bwin as its main sponsor, and is therefore named the BWINLIGA. 32Red are associated with Midlands club Aston Villa. 888.com have sponsorship deals with Middlesbrough in England, Toulouse in France, and Sevilla in Spain. Betfair have sponsored London club Fulham in the past. Virtual football manager games often have agreements with bookmakers, wherein the name of the bookmaker is shown when the pre match odds are declared to the person playing the game.