Check out these 40 interesting facts about Football.

1. Football was invented in China nearly 476 B.C.

2. Football is the most watched and most played sport on earth.

3. Only Canadians and Americans call football as Soccer.

4. During every game, Football players run an average of 9.65 km.

5. The first game of Basketball was played with a soccer ball.

6. Arthur Wharton is considered the first black professional footballer in the world.

7. 80% of the world’s footballs are manufactured in Pakistan.

8. The maximum number of goals ever scored was by Stephan Stanis (France) in December 1942.

9. Pele was the first to call football “the beautiful game”.

10. The total length of the football field is 100 yards.

11. The football hall of fame is situated in Canton, Ohio.

12. The first Super Bowl was played in 1967.

13. An international football game is 90 minutes long and those 90 minutes are distributed in two 45 minute halves.

14. The North Korean Rungrado May Day Stadium is the largest football stadium in the world.

15. One of the fastest goal was in 2.8 seconds made by Ricardo Olivera in December 1998.

16. The 16 is the maximum number of goals scored by one player in a single Football match.

17. In 2002 World Cup, Oliver Kahn became the first and only goalkeeper to win the Golden Ball.

18. Until 1913, Goalies did not wear different colored shirts from their teammates.

19. A referee’s call during a football match in Peru caused a riot that killed over 300 people and injured over 500 people in 1964.

20. Most World Cup final reached team are European Teams, except for the finals of 1930 and 1950.

21. The World’s First Football Club was the English Sheffield Football Club founded in 1857.

22. Lightning killed an entire football team during a game in 1998.

23. In professional football the ball used has persisted just the same shape and size and for 120 years – 28 inches in circumference.

24. Neil Armstrong wanted to take a football to the moon, but NASA refused it.

25. In 1937, the first live coverage of a football match was shown on television.

26. Bryce Brites a 20-month-old baby is the world youngest professional football player.

27. Greenland cannot join the FIFA because not enough grass grows for a football field.

28. There are four types of special teams: kick off, return kicks, block and return punts.

29. The first football game played in 1869 when McGill University played Yale.

30. Dino Zoff became the oldest player to win the World Cup at the age of 40 years.

31. Football balls are made from layers of synthetic leather while the bladders inside the ball are made from latex or butyl.

32. Different shots in soccer are: knuckle shot, the full volley, the half volley, the swerve shot, the side volley and the flying volley.

33. The maximum number of players on a football team is 11.

34. Asmir Begovic scored the fastest and longest goal in football history against Southampton On 2 November 2013.

35. Different positions in the Football field are: center-back, sweeper, goalkeeper, fullback, wingback, attacking midfielder, winger, forward, striker, center-midfielder, defensive midfielder and stopper.

36. Paul Pogba (Juventus-Manchester United) is the world’s most expensive football player.

37. The highest goals were 149-0 in a football game played between Stade Olympique de L’emyrne and AS Adema of Madagascar.

38. Cristiano Ronaldo, Ballon d’Or winner, became the first player who scored a goal in every single minute of the game.

39. Lee Todd holds the record of receiving the fastest red card in the history of professional football after he used foul language.

40. One of the largest ever football tournaments was played in the year 1999 in which a total of 5,098 teams had participated and more than 35,000 players took part.

Football is the world most played and watched game with over 240 million people playing the game world wide

Football is played world wide by over 1.5 million teams and in 300,000 clubs however majority play outside the official sphere

Here are 7 football facts you should know

The Longest Penalty Shootout was in 2005 in the final of the Namibian cup between KK Palace and Civics.

The match had finished 2-2 in Normal time and the game had to be settled by penalties, 48 in total with KK Palace defeating Civics 17-16

The Shootout lasted almost as long as the game and a number of players had to take three spot kicks on each side.

33 were scored with 15 missed in the most bizarre penalty shoot out ever in the history of the game.

The Isles of Scilly Football League is the smallest official football league with just 2 clubs.

It involves the Woolpack Wanderers and the Garrison Gunners

The two clubs play each other seventeen times.

The two teams also contest for two cups

The Wholesalers Cup and the Foredeck Cup, which is played over two legs and the charity shield which begin before the league season

The league is played during the winter, from mid-November until the end of March.

The Woolpack Wanderers have won the championship most and are the current champions

3 The Most goals scored in A World Cup Tournament

The most goals ever scored in a FIFA world cup tournament was by a Frenchman Just Fontaine, scoring 13 goals in 1958

Closest to him was kocsis in 1954,Gerd Müller in 1970 and Portugal's Eusébio in 1966, with 11, 10 and 9, respectively.

The most strange football league structure is the Tasmanian NPL consisting of 8 teams who play each other twice in a straight league format

The top six then advance to the play off to fight for the championship much like the Austrian Bundedliga, only they are joined by the two winners of the leagues (North and South ).

Which means they is a good chance that the team that didn't contest in the top flight gets a chance to win the championship.

The fastest hatrick was scored by Alex Torr in a Sunday league game in 2013. The time is 70 seconds.

Speaking of weird league format, the 1950 world cup was decided by a four team final group involving hosts Brazil, Spain, Uruguay and Sweden.

Brazil had beaten Sweden and spain 7-1 and 6-1 respectively having collected 4 points while Uruguay drew 2-2 with Spain and edged the Swedes 3-2

The final went down between the two South Americans in the iconic Maracana, Rio de Jeneiro where Uruguay had to comeback to beat Brazil 2-1

The Highest goals ever scored in a football game was in Madagascar in a league game between AS Adema And SO l'Emyrne on 31st October 2002 which ended 149-0

SO l'Emyrne scored 149 own goals as a form of protest for being robbed of the title because of a penalty between AS Adema.

Their opponent could do nothing but stand and looked bemused. It was one of the most silly game ever that the spectators stormed the ticket booths demanded refunds.

The Manager and four players of SOE were banned (including the Madagascan national team captain) for three years.

The Bayern attacker has an incredible record of having won league titles in every single kseason he has played as a professional.

He won the 2012/13 and 2013/14 Ligue 1 with PSG, the 2014-15 and 2015-16 with Juventus,

And won five consecutive titles with Bayern Munich (2015-16,2016-17,2017-18,2018-19 and 2019-20)

Dundee united have played Barcelona four times and have won all of them

The two teams first met in second round of the inter -cities Fairs cup in the 1966-67 season , beating the catalans 2-1 in Spain before winning the return leg 2-0 in Scotland

They met again in the 1987 UEFA Cup quarter finals where a one nil win in Scotland was followed by a 2-1 comeback win at the Camp Nou.

You're probably wondering what links these two clubs together

Athletic Bilbao didn't original wore the red and white stripes instead the wore a kit similar to Blackburn Rovers.

A young student (Juan Elorduy ) from Bilbao who was spending Christmas in London was charged to buy 25 new shirts by the club.

Waiting for the ship empty handed he discovered that the colours Southampton matched that of Bilbao so he took 50 shirts to take with him.

The club decided to change the kit immediately Elorduy arrived with them and sent half of it to Atletico Madrid.

Before this only Sporting Gijon were known to have worn red and white.