How did football become the most popular sport?

There’s no question that football is the global sport. Basketball, tennis, cricket, and other sports are popular too, but nothing comes close to football.

The global fame of teams such as Manchester United, Arsenal, Barcelona, or Real Madrid and competitions such as the Champions League have ensured that football never dies.

【小题1】 . The numbers are greater when compared to any other sport, and this drives the popularity of football up.

Modern football originally appeared in Britain in the XIX century. Folk football matches have been played before in many cities and towns, but never on a professional level. 【小题2】, but football eventually blossomed as a winter sport game played in different schools.

The Rules Development

The rules were dictated by each school, and this difference made it difficult for players to look at it in any other way than a leisure game. It all changed in 1849 at the University of Cambridge that invented a set of standard rules known as the Cambridge rules of football. 【小题3】 and from that moment, a new star sport was born.

By the early XX century, football has spread all across Europe. Internal organization came in 1904, when FIFA was found by representatives of many international football associations. 【小题4】. It took just around 50 years for football to reach its apex, especially in the UK after England won the World Cup in 1966.

England’s international success boosted the popularity of the sport in the country. The Premier League as it is now was established in 1992, but it was still present in another format before it. From the 1990s onward, it became a truly impressive piece of football machinery, becoming the world’s top football league in the process.

【小题5】. Of course, the Champions League is right up there in terms of revenue and fans, putting Europe’s top football clubs against each other.(377words)

While the temperature in Chicago on March 4, 2018 was 5 degrees, the water was even colder—2 degrees. That didn’t stop over 4, 800 people on North Avenue Beach jumping into Lake Michigan.

The Chicago Polar Plunge is a yearly event to raise money for Special Olympics Chicago. Each of the participants (参与者) collect at least $200 from friends and family members to get the chance to jump into the lake’s icy water. More than $1.5 million was raised for a great cause: Special Olympics Chicago and the over 7, 500 athletes it serves.

Special Olympics, a nonprofit organization, was founded in 1968. The group’s purpose is to provide athletic training and competition in 22 sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities (缺陷).

After some initial speeches, the first group of participants ran into the lake. Many of the participants were members of teams that dressed up in costumes (服装), including Minions and Waldo from the Where’s Waldo book series.

Chloe Krecun, 12, from Chicago, was shaking when she got out of the water. “I can’t feel my feet or fingers and my shoes are filled with water,” she said afterwards. But she would do it again to support the Special Olympic athletes.

As other participants headed towards the water to “take a plunge”, one of them shared why he participated in the event. “My cousin has benefited from the Special Olympics, so my family and I are here to support him by plunging,” said Brandon Marty.

Brunida Cotton, a special education teacher, was also paying attention to the Special Olympics as she prepared to plunge. “It gives the athletes confidence; they belong to a team and they enjoy being able to do things other kids do, ” Cotton said.

Do big sporting events make us do more sport?

I recently spent half a weekend sitting on the sofa watching the Davis Cup. I thought about going for a run, but I did not want to miss the rest of the match. Soon it was starting to get dark, so I did not bother. Whenever I watch tennis, I think how nice it would be to play it regularly. But I have been thinking that for almost 20 years without actually setting foot on a court. The evidence would suggest that I’m not the only one.

When a country or city bids to host an international sporting event, it often promises that more people will take up sports as a result. London was no exception. Tessa Jowell, who helped to secure the 2012 Olympics for London, said they would be the first to set challenging but achievable targets as a measure of their ambition: By 2012 two million more people would be physically active. And 60 percent of young people would be doing at least five hours of sports per week.

In the end it did not turn out quite like that. Just over one-third of people in Britain take part in sports once a week. A report on Olympic and Paralympic legacy has said that a big change in participation levels simply has not happened.

Why isn’t there a big increase in people taking part in sports after most sporting events? Perhaps it is a mistake to assume an automatic link between watching sports and playing it. While the games are on, they actually encourage people to do just the opposite — to spend whole sunny days not out playing sports, but inside sitting on the sofa with the curtains shut to stop the sun shining on the TV screen and spoiling the view. We don’t expect half the audience of a hit musical to apply to drama school the next day, yet we seem to expect it of sporting events.

We might have sat on the sofa doing an impression of Usain Bolt’s bow-and-arrow signature pose. But how many of us have been inspired by watching him sprint (短跑) 100 meters? The high-level performances on show only remind people that they could never match the elite athletes in their sporting achievements even if they trained full time.

Maybe participation in sports is not the right legacy to expect after a major sporting event. It’s not so much that the Olympics failed to get people to participate but rather that this was never going to be the result. The Olympics can do many things, but maybe this cannot necessarily be one of them.