0_Apprentice
Hi!  I cannot wait until football season starts up again!  They better be training now and getting ready!
1_Wizard
I know, I just love football! It's played by 250 million players in over 200 countries!
0_Apprentice
Wow!  Association football is both soccer and football. It is the most played sport in the world.
1_Wizard
I always wondered where the name "soccer" came from. It's an abbreviation of "association" (from "assoc.") Isn't that interesting?
0_Apprentice
It is cool I guess...  I like that they been involving women for a long time.  England in 1894 had a team the British Ladies' Football Club.
1_Wizard
That's great. Women's football in England has seen a large increase since the 1990s.
0_Apprentice
Despite being more popular than some men's football events (one match saw a 53,000 strong crowd),[60] women's football in England suffered a blow in 1921 when The Football Association outlawed the playing of the game on Association members' pitches, on the grounds that the game (as played by women) was distasteful.
1_Wizard
Wow. The England national football team's first international match was in 1870.