how teams qualify to the FIFA world cup

FIFA which is the organ that regulates soccer worldwide, has a system of 5 different confederations that regulate how the countries within that are qualify. This confederations are: AFC (Asian Football Confederation), CAF (Confederation of African football), CONCACAF( Confederation of North, Central America, and Caribbean Association Football), OFC( Oceania Football Confederation),CONMEBOL( Confederacion Sudamericana de Futbol) and the UEFA(Union of European Football Associations).

they all have different rules of how to qualify to the world cup. The UEFA is the biggest football confederation and 13 of its members national teams are qualified to the world cup. 6 members of the CAF are qualified to the world cup. 5 members of the CONMEBOL are going to be in South Africa this year. 4 members of the AFC are attending this event. 3 of the CONCACAF are also qualified to the world cup, and the last one is the OFC with just one member qualified.

FIFA World cup

It is an international Football(soccer) cup played by men's national teams that are members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the sport's global governing body. It happens every 4 years in different parts of the world. This year South Africa was awarded as the host country for the cup. 32 team are going to play for around a month this summer. These teams had to play a qualification phase against countries in the same area ,and the best in the area are the ones that go to the world cup. The world cup started in 1930 in Uruguay as a small tournament and is now is by far the most viewed sporting event in the world. In my next post I am going to explain how countries qualify to this event.

El clasico

Last weekend I was able to watch the Clasico online. The clasico is probably one of the best rivalries in sports. Barcelona and Real Madrid are the 2 teams in the clasico. They play el clasico twice a year. What make this rivalry so unique, is that Barcelona is the capital of Catalunya. It is an spanish province that has some peaceful independent movements going on. They claim that they don't share many cultural features with spanish people, they even have their own language (catalan). While Real Madrid represents the spanish capitol. They also represent spanish pride in this kind of game. They played in Santiago Bernabeu Stadium. The game was sold out. 90,000 people were able to get tickets to this game. This time (unfortunately) Barcelona won 0-2. I have to admit that their football (soccer) style right now is just amazing. Hopefully Real Madrid is able to catch up before the end of the season

Outside sources:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=9977483, www.as.com

which one is the best

which one is the best

which of these to players you think is the best in the world? Cristiano Ronaldo, or Lionel messi. If you know nothing about soccer let me give you some info about these 2 players. Cristiano Ronaldo is from portugal. He plays for the spanish team Real Madrid. Leonel Messi was born in Argentina. He plays for the spanish team Barcelona. These two teams are probably the best rivalry in any sport. I know many of you will say that Red Sox-yankees is the best rivalry in any sport , but if you ever have the chance of going to a Real Madrid-Barcelona I am sure you would change your mind. In these 2 videos you can watch the best 10 goals of both players this season.

Bad injuries

this weekend Aaron Ramsey got one of the worst injures in the history of british soccer. He suffered a double fracture in his right leg after a tackle from Ryan Shawcross Ramsey was stretchered off the field into an ambulance and hospitalized, where he was confirmed to have broken his tibia and fibula. The player that did this to him got a red card, and left the field crying

profitability in soccer

How much money do you think a channel has to pay for broadcasting a soccer season? I did some research on the british soccer market. Sky sports, a British sport channel is paying 2.7 billion pounds for broadcasting 3 premier league seasons. The premier league is the most important league in great britain. this deal doesn't include the FA cup, the Carling cup, or the UEFA champions league. ESPN entered the British market paying 60 million pounds for broadcasting t the FA cup. This cup is probably the less important cup of the 4 I mentioned before. The UEFA champions league is a inter-continental cup where the best teams of Europe compete in a knock out format. Sky paid 240 million pounds for 80% of the TV rights in Great Britain (which is probably around 3 or 4 games a week that go from october to april) It seems like european soccer clubs and companies have their own Superbowl going on every single weekend instead of once a year in terms of advertisement.

why is it called soccer ?

In England, there were two types of football: rugby football and association football. The slang term for rugby football was "rugger," and the slang for association football was "assoc." The word "assoc" gradually evolved into "soccer," which was much easier to say. When association football was introduced to North America, gridiron football (the type played by the NFL and in the Super Bowl) was already well established. To avoid confusion, Americans adopted the British nickname "soccer" for the new sport. I remember when the L.A. Galaxy signed the British soccer star David beckham, he had to apologize all the time when he was speaking to the fans because he would say "football, oh I apologize soccer" why did he apologize? he was signed as an effort of the team and the league of having a stronger presence in the American media market. this player is super star plus he is married to an ex spice girl (posh) so he had to get used to this culture as soon as possible and start making money for the league. In my next post I am going to talk about of the effect of David Beckham in the American league.

introduction to soccer

I was born in Venezuela. probably because I was born in south America I am very passionate about soccer. Choosing what to write about was very easy. in this blog I just want to comment and explain why whats going on in the soccer word right now is such a big deal for the rest of the world.

Do you know the meaning of the word soccer? According to Princeton University soccer is “a football game in which two teams of 11 players try to kick or head a ball into the opponents' goal.” Soccer is called football in most of the world; there is an explanation to why it has a different name in America. According to www.faqkids.com there were two famous sports in England around the 1800s; they were rugby football, and association football (Soccer Training info). “The slang term for rugby football was "rugger,"(FAQ kids) and the slang for association football was "assoc." The word "assoc" gradually evolved into soccer” then because rugby football was introduced to the United States before assoc football, people called North American football “football” and assoc football “soccer.” Then in the 1900s people in Great Britain would call assoc football “football” and rugby football “rugby” and people didn’t use soccer anymore, but in the states people still called (and are still calling) football “soccer”.

Soccer is the main sport in most of the world. It is like a religion in Europe. People gather in the soccer stadiums every Saturday, and Sundays to watch their team playing. In South America is also a very important sport, for example: in Brazil people play soccer since they are 3 years old and they play everywhere, on the streets at the beach, etc. I will try to post during the week whats going on in the soccer world in such a way, that even people that don't follow it understand it. So far it seems like a fun activity, and we will see how it goes.