Football

People have been kicking round objects for millennia. Chinese soldiers were playing cuju — a game of kicking a leather ball through a small goal — as far back as 200 BC. Ancient Greece and Rome had their own versions. But all of that is more interesting as prehistory than direct lineage.

Modern football started in England. On 26 October 1863, representatives from eleven London clubs gathered at the Freemasons' Tavern in Covent Garden. They formed the Football Association and wrote down a unified set of rules — the Laws of the Game. That afternoon, football and rugby split for good.

The Football League was founded in 1888, making England the first country with a professional competition. British workers, sailors, and engineers then carried the game across Europe and South America through the late 1800s — which is why Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and most of Europe were playing before 1900.

FIFA came into existence in Paris in 1904 with seven founding nations. The first World Cup was held in Uruguay in 1930 — thirteen teams made the trip (most by boat), and the hosts won it 4–2 against Argentina in front of 68,000 people in Montevideo.

The European Cup launched in 1955. Real Madrid won the first five editions without dropping a final. Television turned those matches into a global event through the 1960s and 70s, and the money that followed transformed the sport into what it is today — the biggest game on Earth.