The Very Beginning
2500 B.C. - Researchers have found remains of a soccer like game in Ancient China
217 A.D. - British soldiers said that they played soccer with the skulls of defeated Roman soldiers from a liberated village
Middle History
600-1600 - Mexico and Central America created the rubber ball. They played the game on a recessed court, with high walls. In the middle of the walls there was a mounted stone or wooden ring. The object was to project the ball into the ring.
Middle Ages - Records were found of soccer in Italy, British Isles, and France.
1100's - In England the game had become a violent mob sport with no rules, and any behavior condoned.
1314 - King Edward II of England orders citizens to stop playing soccer
1369 - King Edward II of England forbids the game of soccer because it interfered with archery
1500's - Italians played soccer with teams of 27+. The game was simple, kicking, passing, or carrying the ball across the goal line
1572 - Queen Elizabeth I seriously bans soccer in England
1580 - Italian Giovanni Bardi publishes a set of rules for soccer, known as " calcio"
1650 - Soccer becomes legal again in England, and by the end of the 17th century, it was the country's most popular sport
1609 - American Indians started playing soccer with teams of 1000+ on a beach half a mile wide, and goals a mile apart
1600's - Pacific Island inhabitants were early developers of games using hands and feet. They used coconuts, oranges, and pig bladders as balls.
1600's - Alaskan and Canadian Eskimos played aqsaqtuk, or soccer on ice
1680 - Soccer wins royal patronage from King Charles II of England
Later History
1820's - Soccer is played among northeastern universities in the United States, including Princeton, Amherst, Brown and Harvard
1830's - Modern form of soccer originates in England
1848 - In England, the first Cambridge Rules are drawn up
1862 - Oneida Soccer Club originates in Boston; the first soccer club anywhere outside of England
1863 - In England, the Soccer Association is founded
1872 - First international Soccer match between Scotland and England
1885 - USA versus Canada in the first international match with teams outside of Great Britain
1886 - First meeting of the International Soccer Association Board
1888 - Introduction of the penalty kick
1904 - FIFA is established at a meeting in Paris on 21 May by delegates from France, Denmark, Belguim, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
1908 - Soccer becomes an Olympic event
1930 - First World Cup with 13 teams in Uruguay
1954 - Birth of Eurovision. Fifth world cup in Switzerland
1955 - Birth of European club competitions
1958 - First live world-wide TV coverage of the World Cup
1977 - First FIFA Youth Competition in Tunisia (Renamed the World Youth Championship in 1981 for players under 20 years old)
1991 - First FIFA World Championship for Women's Soccer in China, won by the USA
1996 - Major League Soccer (MLS) begins as top USA pro-soccer league
2000 - Brazil hosts the first FIFA Club World Championship, won by Corinthians of Brazil
2002 - Korea and Japan co-host the first World Cup outside of Europe and the Americas
2004 - FIFA celebrates its centenary