pbfoot and NS.
Football (Soccer...
) is so popular mainly because:
1) it is being played for sooo long - for hundreds of years (first official leagues in Europe were founded around mid of 19th Century)
2) You don't need no equipement - just the ball and you can play. Is that possible with any other sport? (excl. running, maybe...)
NS said:
...Sorry, I don't know much about soccer.
It involves a big field, a ball of some kind, and a lot of guys running around in shorts.
OK, some rules in breif for you:
It is 11 players each team (1 goalie, usually 3 defenders, 3 midfielders and 2 attackers).
The game is played for two halftimes (each 45 minutes + extra time (depends on the referee, usually adds 2-3 minutes of extra time).
Fowls are when you hit the player, not the ball. It usually gives the handicaped team a free kick from the place where his player was fowled, if it's more serious, the fowling player gets a yellow card, if it's classified as a rough or a dangerous fowl, he gets a red card and is sent off the field for the rest of the game. For two yellow cards you get a red card.
You cannot use your hands, unless you're a goalie and you're in the goal area .
The team which scores more goals, wins. How simple!
Here is more advanced look at the Football game itself:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football
BTW, you know why Rugby is called Football in America? Cause during the time of founding the football leagues in UK in the mid 19th Cent., some people were playing even with hands and some banned using hands. When the UKI colonizators imported it into America later on, this game splitted into two styles but has the same name. A big mystery solved!