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organization to oversee the sport, in 1904 seven European
countries founded the Fédération Internationale de
Football Association (FIFA). In 1930 FIFA created what
would become the most popular sporting event around
the globe: the World Cup, a quadrennial international
tournament that determines soccer’s world champion.
Over the years, FIFA has also introduced international
tournaments for younger players, for indoor five-a-side
soccer, and, most significantly, the Women’s World Cup
(which was founded in 1991).
Unlike many other prominent spectator sports, there
is no single country or region that is the undisputed home
to the greatest soccer players, say, as the United States is
for gridiron football and Canada is for ice hockey. Instead,
as soccer grew in global popularity during the late 19th and
early 20th century, the sport branched out from England
and a great many regional soccer traditions of note were
established.
European soccer has the best known regional tradi-
tion amongst soccer fans. Not only is Europe home to the
oldest leagues, but the continent boasts the most presti-
gious and well-funded domestic soccer clubs, as well. But
European soccer was not always the smoothly running
juggernaut it is today. When FIFA was organized in 1904,
a significant absence among the founding countries was
England, birthplace of modern soccer. By 1911 all four
“home nations” (England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales)
had relented and joined FIFA, but the British countries
were contemptuous of the organization and resigned their
FIFA memberships in 1920 and again in 1928, with the lat-
ter exodus lasting until 1946. As inventors of the modern
game, British countries had long been home to the high-
est-quality soccer, but during their prolonged absence
from FIFA between 1928 and 1946 British soccer clubs
were largely surpassed by teams from other countries.
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