Football is Popular in the UK

To read the text about football in Britain check whether you know these words:

association – асоціація
The Football Association (FA for short) was started in 1863.

cup – кубок
The greatest football competition in Britain is the FA Cup.

a set of – набір
Its first job was to get a set of rules for all teams.

stadium – стадіон
The greatest football competitions are held every May at the famous Wembley stadium in London.

modern – сучасний
The birthplace of modern soccer is Britain.

proper – відповідний, правильний
Footballers have been playing with proper rules only since 1863.

introduce – запроваджувати, знайомити
The modern game was introduced to other countries by British soldiers, seamen and businessmen. Let me introduce myself.

invent – винаходити
Do you know who invented the radio?

organize – організовувати
The first competition was organized in the middle of the 19^th century.

Football in Britain

Britain invented many sports and games which are played all over the world.
Football is a wonderful game.
People have been playing football for over 3,000 years.
Nobody can tell where it was played for the first time.
There is evidence that it was played in Japan, China, Rome and Greece.
But the birthplace of modern soccer is Britain (both England and Scotland).
First it was a very rude and hard game.
There were no rules.
In 1815, the famous English School, Eton College, established a set of rules.
Footballers have been playing with proper rules only since 1863.
That year the Football Association (FA for short) was started.
Its first job was to get a set of rules for all teams.
Football has been the most popular sport in the UK since the 1860s.
In the 1880s students at Oxford University created a slang word for the word association. They shortened it to SOC and added ER. So the word soccer was created.
The modern game was introduced to other countries by British soldiers, seamen and businessmen.
The greatest football competition in Britain is the FA Cup.
The first competition was organized in the middle of the nineteenth century.
The FA Cup is held every May at the famous Wembley stadium in London.
The British club teams are often successful in Europe.
There is no United Kingdom national football team.

Wembley Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the original Wembley Stadium. The stadium hosts major football matches including home matches of the England national football team, and the FA Cup Final. Wembley Stadium is owned by the Football Association (the FA). The FA headquarters are in the stadium.

With 90,000 seats, it is the largest stadium in the UK and the second largest stadium in Europe.

Wembley’s iconic sliding roof covers every seat in the stadium, making it the largest fully covered stadium in the world.

The stadium’s pitch combines synthetic grass with the real Wembley grass to strengthen the playing surface.

Aside from its significance in English football, Wembley has been the setting for numerous other sporting events, from greyhound racing and hockey to the Olympic Games. Some of the world’s biggest musicians have performed here, including Queen, Michael Jackson, the Rolling Stones, Metallica and George Michael.