When the Chinese played 'tsu chu', in which animal-skin balls were dribbled through gaps in a net stretched between two poles as far back as 255BC, the last thing they would have expected is that their ball kicking would one day become part of the history of football or as it is known in South Africa, soccer.

They also would not have dreamt that soccer would build such a strong support base that it would be used to enhance the financial well-being of South African in Polokwane in 2010. Because the 2010 FIFA World Cup will not just be a soccer spectacular, it also creates wealth in many forms for all South Africans.

Legend has it that the earliest soccer "balls" were in fact human heads, stitched up cloth, animal and human skulls or pig and cow bladders. A popular game is said to have been that one village would kick a skull trying to kick it to another village's square with the recipients obviously opposing them and trying to return the favour.

Click here to read more about the history of soccer balls.

The first description of a football match in England was written by William FitzStephen in about 1170. Apparently it lead to a number of deaths of players who fell on their, or other players' knives and it was even forbidden because it interfered with their archery practise.
On the other hand a headmaster of a school wrote in 1580 that football had many positive results, amongst others, "... it is good for the bowels, and to drive the stone and gravel from both the bladder and kidneys."

Read Spartacus Educational's Encylopedia of British Football article about the history of football here.

The FIFA World Cup started as a tentative competition in Uruguay in 1930 and since then the 18 tournaments that took place have seen only seven different winners.

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) was founded in 1904 and you can read a short history of the organisation here.

The Wikipedia entry of FIFA is here.

The first winner of the FIFA World Cup was Uruguay who beat Argentina 4-2. The complete statistics of the World Cup is here.

Click here for the official FIFA website.