The worlds game

Football. Soccer. A million derogatory nicknames. It doesn't matter where you are in the world, the people there know what it is and to find a person who has never played the game in any shape or form after the age they can run is nearly impossible. The football world cup final is the most watched sporting event in the world (to any americans reading: no, it's not the superbowl. It's the world cup final). So how a small game played only in the British Isles spread to become something worldwide?


The origin of the official rules of association football lies in the year 1848. At the time, many codes of "football" existed, most colleges having their own version, with some allowing handling of the ball, other tripping, still others allowed holding and hacking (kicking the shins of) opposing players. In 1848 a group of representatives from several different colleges got together at Cambridge University and combined the rules from their various colleges to create the Cambridge Rules, which were then played at all the schools to allow inter-schools competition. However many football clubs continued to play their own different rules, and the Cambridge rules, while they had most modern rules in place, still allowed holding, hacking, tripping and catching the ball if it was in the air. More and more interest was shown in making one set of rules that everyone would follow, and finally the rules were drawn up. A few clubs left the association when hacking was banned and went on to become rugby clubs.


The FA was formed to moderate disputes about matches and the rules themselves. As the game grew in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales joined the IFAB (International Football Association Board). Othe European countries learned of the sport from British ex-pats, the fairly simple rules and lack of equipment needed making it easy to show off. Footballs being easy to play also probably accounts for its success in poorer nations, as they do not need expensive equipment to play the sport. Finally Europeans emigrating brought the sport to the Americas. It did less well in the USA due to American Football and Baseball being developed at the same time, but is still a popular youth sport today.

Fast twitch, Slow twitch

Every muscle in your body is made up of fibres. These fibres are one of 2 types: Fast twitch muscle fibres and slow twitch muscle fibres. Fast twitch muscle fibres can do a lot of work quickly, but also tire quickly, whereas slow twitch muscle fibres can't work as quickly, but have a lot more endurance. The average person has around 60% fast twitch and 40% slow twitch muscle fibres. You cannot change what kind of muscle fibres you have, so it is a huge advantage to sprinters, powerlifters, javelin throwers, shotputters etc. to have fast twitch muscles, while those who play endurance field sports like rugby, football, gaelic sports, basketball etc. or distance running would want different balances depending on the sport and their position in the sport. Since what muscle fibres you have is hereditary, it has often been theorized that some places have better chances of turning out certain types of athletes e.g. Jamaican sprinters.

Video: Usain Bolt 100m World Record Benzer: usain, bolt, 100m

The idea that a particular body type can make people better at sprinting and other similiar sports helps explain how small, poor countries with probably not-very-good facilities can not only compete with huge developed nations like the USA, but beat them almost every time. A lot of work in Jamaica has been put into sprinting, and they probably got the idea to start competing in the sport due to the huge amount of natural talent available. Poverty in Jamaica means that kids see sprinting as their chance to make a break and get rich, and thus train very hard. Poverty may also have helped natural selection in the past, in tribal times when fast runners could get more food. It has been shown that descendants of slaves in America have more fast twitch muscle fibres than white people, probably a result of strong slaves being more valuable to their owners and therefore less likely to be killed. It is possible that the slave trade had similiar affects on Jamacian culture.

The draft system, Part 1

Every year in America, in every major sport, comes the draft. For those unfamiliar with the system, it works like this: Every year, newcomers to proffesional sports from schools, colleges etc. are spread out among the various teams, each team getting a pick of who they want and the teams that did worst the previous year get the first pick to try to keep things interesting by giving smaller teams a chance. Although there are problems with the system (good players leaving weak teams once their alloted time is up, teams intentionally coming last to get better picks) for the most part, it works to prevent rich teams buying up all the new talent and stop "juggernaut teams" from existing.


But if it's so prevealent in North American sports, why is the idea almost non-existant elsewhere?

Especially in the English Premier League, where the dominance of the "big four" is often criticised, would a draft system not be the perfect solution? The answer is that the way young athletes are trained to become proffessionals in America is different to how they are trained in other places, and the structure of proffessional sports is different also.


For a start, all the teams in the NBA, NFL, and MBL are contained within North America and only play in those leagues. Football and rugby clubs in Europe and other places typically play in at least 2 tournaments at a time. (Premier League and FA cup, Guinness Premiership/Magners League and Heineken cup). Even the amateur GAA in Ireland has both a league and a cup each year, watched by thousands. Which organization would run the draft system, and would countries have to give their players to clubs from other countries, which could hinder the club game in that country, with knock-on effects on the international team?


It's notable that one of the only other places that uses a draft system is the AFL in Australia: another league where all the competition are in one country with little to no international competition. Perhaps a draft system naturally comes about when sports are popular in one area, isolated, and proffessional? (it should be noted that although the GAA is very popular and televised to huge audiences, it is amateur and based explicity on the idea of "play for where you're from")

But even within countries, there is the problem that in America, incoming proffessional athletes are trained up in High school and college before going proffessional. In European and other clubs, traing comes from Youth Academies. It makes no sense to expect Chelsea to train up a great new player only to have to give him to Everton when the draft comes. Even the training secondary schools in Ireland give to rugby players is soon supplanted by academy training, and coollege rugby is taken much less seriously.

The idea of the draft seems kind of contrary to the famously capitalist American society. Giving weak teams better players for their weakness is opposed to the notion that those who are rich deserve all the rewards. But it turns out there are good reasons why the system evolved here and not in other places, while also showing that sometimes the attitude of a society towards sport is different to it's attitude as a whole.
Thanks to pac10.wordpress.com for picture

Introduction

Hello. My name is Peter and I am an Irish rugby player. I am doing this blog for my geography class. I chose this subject because I find the culture behind sports fascinating and I want to share what I know and what I think about it.