Sport

Sport (or sports) is all forms of usually competitive physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical ability and skills while providing entertainment to participants, and in some cases, spectators. Hundreds of sports exist, from those requiring only two participants, through to those with hundreds of simultaneous participants, either in teams or competing as individuals.

Sport is generally recognized as activities which are based in physical athleticism or physical dexterity, with the largest major competitions such as the Olympic Games admitting only sports meeting this definition, and other organisations such as the Council of Europe using definitions precluding activities without a physical element from classification as sports. However, a number of competitive, but non-physical, activities claim recognition as mind sports. The International Olympic Committee (through ARISF) recognises both chess and bridge as bona fide sports, and SportAccord, the international sports federation association, recognises five non-physical sports, although limits the amount of mind games which can be admitted as sports.

Sports are usually governed by a set of rules or customs, which serve to ensure fair competition, and allow consistent adjudication of the winner. Winning can be determined by physical events such as scoring goals or crossing a line first, or by the determination of judges who are scoring elements of the sporting performance, including objective or subjective measures such as technical performance or artistic impression.

In organized sport, records of performance are often kept, and for popular sports, this information may be widely announced or reported in sport news. In addition, sport is a major source of entertainment for non-participants, with spectator sport drawing large crowds to venues, and reaching wider audiences through broadcasting.

According to A.T. Kearney, a consultancy, the global sporting industry is worth up to $620 billion as of 2013.

Meaning and usage

Etymology

"Sport" comes from the Old French desport meaning "leisure", with the oldest definition in English from around 1300 being "anything humans find amusing or entertaining

Other meanings include gambling and events staged for the purpose of gambling; hunting; and games and diversions, including ones that require exercise. Roget's defines the noun sport as an "activity engaged in for relaxation and amusement" with synonyms including diversion and recreation

Nomenclature

The singular term "sport" is used in most English dialects to describe the overall concept (e.g. "children taking part in sport"), with "sports" used to describe multiple activities (e.g. "football and rugby are the most popular sports in England"). American English uses "sports" for both terms.

Competition

There are opposing views on the necessity of competition as a defining element of a sport, with almost all professional sport involving competition, and governing bodies requiring competition as a prerequisite of recognition by the International Olympic Committee(IOC) or SportAccord

Other bodies advocate widening the definition of sport to include all physical activity. For instance, the Council of Europe include all forms of physical exercise, including those completed just for fun.

In order to widen participation, and reduce the impact of losing on less able participants, there has been an introduction of non-competitive physical activity to traditionally competitive events such as school sports days, although moves like this are often controversial

In competitive events, participants are graded or classified based on their "result" and often divided into groups of comparable performance, (e.g. gender, weight and age). For each group, the first in the list will usually be the "winner". The measurement of the result may be objective or subjective, and corrected with "handicaps" or penalties. In a race, for example, the time to complete the course is an objective measurement. In gymnastics or diving the result is decided by a panel of judges, and therefore subjective. There are many shades in between, like boxing or mixed martial arts, where victory is assigned by judges if neither competitor has lost at the end of the match time.

History

The history of sports probably extends as far back as the existence of people as purposive sportive and active beings. Sport has been a useful way for people to increase their mastery of nature and the environment. The history of sport can teach us a great deal about social changes and about the nature ofsport itself. Sport seems to involve basic human skills being developed and exercised for their own sake, in parallel with being exercised for their usefulness. It also shows how society has changed its beliefs and therefore there are changes in the rules. Of course, as we go further back in history the dwindling evidence makes the theories of the origins and purposes of sport difficult to support.

Sport in prehistory

Cave paintings have been found in the Lascaux caves in France that have been suggested to depict sprintingand wrestling in the Upper Paleolithic around 17,300 years ago. Cave paintings in the Bayankhongor Province of Mongolia dating back to Neolithic age of 7000 BC show a wrestling match surrounded by crowds. Neolithic Rock art found at the cave of swimmers in Wadi Sura, near Gilf Kebir in Libya has shown evidence of swimming and archery being practiced around 6000 BC. Prehistoric cave paintings have also been found in Japan depicting a sport similar to sumo wrestling

Football refers to a number of sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball with the foot to score a goal. Unqualified, the word football is understood to refer to whichever form of football is the most popular in the regional context in which the word appears: association football (also known as soccer) in the vast majority of the world; gridiron football (specifically American football or Canadian football) in the United States and Canada; Australian rules football in Australia; Gaelic football in Ireland; and rugby football (specifically rugby union) in New Zealand. These different variations of football are known as football codes.

Various forms of football can be identified in history, often as popular peasant games. Contemporary codes of football can be traced back to the codification of these games at English public schools in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries The influence and power of the British Empire allowed these rules of football to spread to areas of British influence outside of the directly controlled Empire, though by the end of the nineteenth century, distinct regional codes were already developing: Gaelic Football, for example, deliberately incorporated the rules of local traditional football games in order to maintain their heritage. In 1888, The Football League was founded in England, becoming the first of many professional football competitions. During the twentieth century, several of the various kinds of football grew to become among the most popular team sports in the world.

Common elements

The various codes of football share certain common elements. Players in American football, Canadian football, rugby union and rugby league take-up positions in a limited area of the field at the start of the game. They tend to use throwing and running as the main ways of moving the ball, and only kick on certain limited occasions. Body tackling is a major skill, and games typically involve short passages of play of 5–90 seconds. Association football, Australian rules football and Gaelic football tend to use kicking to move the ball around the pitch, with handling more limited. Body tackles are less central to the game, and players are freer to move around the field (offside laws are typically less strict). Common rules among the sports include.Two teams of usually between 11 and 18 players; some variations that have fewer players (five or more per team) are also popular.

·         A clearly defined area in which to play the game.

·         Scoring goals or points, by moving the ball to an opposing team's end of the field and either into a goal area, or over a line.

·         Goals or points resulting from players putting the ball between two goalposts.

·         The goal or line being defended by the opposing team.

·         Players being required to move the ball—depending on the code—by kicking, carrying, or hand-passing the ball.

·         Players using only their body to move the ball.

In all codes, common skills include passing, tackling, evasion of tackles, catching and kicking.^[8] In most codes, there are rules restricting the movement of players offside, and players scoring a goal must put the ball either under or over a crossbar between the goalpost

The Rules of Football

The rules of football are officially referred to as the "Laws of the Game".  The Laws of the Game are described very precisely (approximately 150 pages) on the FIFA website here.

There are 17 laws in total, each one briefly summarised below.
Field of Play.  The game can be played on either natural or artificial surfaces, the surface must be green and rectangular in shape.  The two long sides of the rectangle are called touch lines and the two shorter sides are called goal lines.  The field is divided in half by the halfway line.
Ball.  Must be spherical, made of leather (or similar) 68-70 cm in circumference and of a certain pressure.
Number of Players.  Two teams of no more than 11 players (one of which is the goalkeeper).  A game cannot start if either team has less than 7 players.
Equipment.  Players must wear a jersey, shorts, stockings, shinguards and footwear.
Referee.  The referee ensures the Laws of the Game are respected and upheld.
Assistant Referees.  There may be at most 2 assistant referees.
Duration of the Match.  The game is played in 2 halves consisting of 45 minutes each.  The half time interval must not exceed more than 15 minutes.  At the discretion of the referee more time is allowed to compensate for any stoppage during play e.g.  Due to substitutions or care and attention of injured players.
Start and Restart of Play.  A kick-off starts play at the start of the match or after a goal.  A kick-off involves one player kicking the ball, from stationary, forward from the centre spot.  All players must be in their own half prior to kick-off.  A coin is tossed pre-game,  the team which loses the toss are awarded the kick-off to start the game whilst the team that win the toss are allowed to choose which direction they want to play.  After half time the teams switch direction and the other team will kick-off.  After a goal is scored, the team which conceded the goal will kick-off to restart play.
Ball in and Out of Play.  The ball is out of play once a goal has been scored or when the referee has stopped the game.  The ball is in play at all other times.
Method of Scoring.  The ball crosses the goal line inside the goal mouth.
Offside.  It is an offence for a player to be in contact with the ball when they are closer to the opponents' goal than both the ball and the second-last opponent.   The offside rule exists to ensure there are always opponents (generally the goal keeper and a defender)  between a player receiving the ball and the goal.  Without the offside rule, play can become boring with repeated long balls being kicked to a player stood next to the goalkeeper for an easy goal.
Fouls/Misconduct.  These are many and varied, broadly speaking it is an offence to use excessive force whilst playing the game either deliberately or undeliberately or to handle the ball (unless you are a goal keeper).  The referee may show the yellow card to caution players for less serious offences and the red card for more serious offences resulting in the player being sent off.  Two yellow cards are equivalent to one red card.
Free Kicks.  Are given by the referee for fouls and misconduct. A free kick can either be direct or indirect.  A goal can be scored directly from a direct free kick.  A goal can only be scored from an indirect free kick if it touches at least one other player first.  The free kick must be taken from a stationary position with that position varying depending on whether the free kick was given inside or outside the goal area and whether it's direct or indirect.  The opposing team must be a minimum of 9.15 m from the ball when the free kick is taken.

Penalty Kicks.  Are given against a team when they commit an offence which would normally be awarded a direct free kick inside their goal area.  The ball is kicked from stationary from the penalty spot.  The opposing team must be outside of the penalty area and at least 9.15 m from the ball.

Throw-in.  Used to restart play after the whole of the ball has crossed the touch line.

Goal kick.  Used to restart play after a goal has been scored.

Corner Kick. Is given when the whole of the ball crosses the goal line and was last touched by a member of the defending team (and no goal was scored).  A corner kick is taken from inside the corner arc closest to the point where the ball crosses the goal line.  The defending team must be at least 9.15 m from the ball when the corner kick is taken

The rules of football are officially referred to as the "Laws of the Game".  The Laws of the Game are described very precisely (approximately 150 pages) on the FIFA website Here