Football Gyaan! – Perfect convo starter
Author: Haroon; Edited by: Tufail Farooq
Football also known as “The Beautiful Game” is played all across the world. Players belonging to different race and religion play this game together in one team to glorify this sport. It is the most watched sport with estimated 3.5 billion fans world-wide.
European Club Football: Countries like England, Spain, Italy, Germany, France etc have the leagues where one of the best players in the world play. Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) is the governing body of football in Europe.
To make it more interesting and competitive, the best 32 clubs from across Europe participate in a single league competition known as “The UEFA Champions League” to earn the title of being the best club in whole Europe. Real Madrid CF (Spanish club) is the record-holder of winning this league with 13 victories. Liverpool FC (English Club) is the current defending champion of this league.
Individual glory: Individual glory is also significant in the world of football where the best player in the world is awarded with a trophy known as “The Ballon Dor”. Lionel Messi is the current holder of winning this trophy for record six times. Cristiano Ronaldo comes 2nd for winning it five times.
Transfer of players is common in club football where one player switches from one club to another. Neymar is the most expensive player in football for having a world-record transfer fee of 222 million euros paid by Paris Saint Germain (PSG) to FC Barcelona.
Lionel Messi is the highest paid footballer with a salary of $127 million.
Football in India: In India, Football is not that competitive in comparison with Europe. I-LEAGUE is the premier league for the best clubs in India. Clubs like Mohun Bagan, Bengaluru FC, Churchill Brothers are some of the best clu
bs in India.
Football in Jammu and Kashmir: Real Kashmir FC is the first club from the valley to participate in The I-LEAGUE after beating Hindustan FC by 3-2.
The State Championship is the premium knock-out football tournament of Jammu and Kashmir where all district champions including institutional teams participate. 32 teams participated in the previous edition of this tournament.
Tournaments like The Mufti Muhammad Sayeed (MMS) Memorial, Sher-e-Kashmir, The Police Martyrs' Football tournament are played every year in J&K.
The District Youth Services and Sports (DYSS
) is the governing body for school level and youth club level football consisting of U-14, U-17 and U-19 tiers.
The Jammu and Kashmir Football Association's (J&KFA) strife for football development continues despite turbulent political condition in the valley.
Effect of COVID-19 on Football: Also, due to the pandemic of COVID-19, Football was suspended for 64 days and now finally being resumed by The Bundesliga (German League) where the clubs played the fixture on 18th May 2020 behind the closed doors which means that no spectators were allowed to enter the stadium.
Fans are the essence of football and without them football is incomplete.
The writer is a sports enthusiast with lawyering skills.
