Fan's Guide to European Football (Soccer)

Football or Soccer is popular sport throughout the world. Football (as it is known through out the world and talked about in this article) is a major club sport with many leagues through many countries of the world. Therefore, it is wise for any person to know at least the basics about football.

How to Learn (and possibly become a fan)

Step 1. Figure out the rules
There are many ways you can do this. You should first read a wikipedia article or equivalent on the rules of football. Here is a link for wikipedia article on the rules of football:
Rules of Football (soccer) from Wikipedia

To actually learn and forever remember the rules, you should watch or preferably play the game (either in real life or a video game).

Step 2: Do video games do a good job?
Usually. It is important that you play with some one who is passionate or at the very least competitive. Any sport will be boring if one side does not want to play.

The advantage of video games is that they always enforce the rules, offer decent competition, and give you some idea of how football competitions work. Play the league mode or manager mode (if available) to completely immerse yourself into European leagues. Playing manager mode will allow you to buy/sell players, play matches, etc. In the process, you understand the rules of league matches, who are the good players, and who are the strong teams. However, it is important that you buy a game that is licensed by leagues if you want to learn anything otherwise the info about the players is always incorrect. FIFA video games by EA are licensed and therefore allow you to get to know who the actual players are. Winning Eleven, another popular game, is only licensed by a few leagues, therefore its team info for many european clubs is inaccurate and thus totally useless to person how is beginning to get familiar with the game. Although Winning Eleven is not licensed it offers what some consider to be superior gameplay that is more realistic to actual football.

The FIFA World Cup
The most famous football, or just in general, event is the FIFA World Cup, which is held every four years in a different country around the world. The 2010 FIFA World Cup is in South Africa. Team from around the world compete for a place in the World Cup through regional rankings. Only those that qualify play in the international knock-out style tournament.

English Premier League
Also known as the EPL, Premiership, Barclay's Premier League, the English Premier League is one of the world's top club football leagues. Featuring some of the best footballers in the world, the EPL has top teams including Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Chelsea. Famous footballers who have played in the EPL are too many to name, but here are some of the famous ones: Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham, Michael Owen, Thierry Henry, etc.

La Liga
La Liga, Spain's top football league, is also one of the strongest in the world. It has two giant clubs (Barcelona and Real Madrid) and many smaller yet strong clubs (Sevilla, Athletico, Villareal). Famous players who played or are playing in La Liga include David Beckham, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Roberto Carlos, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Messi, Lilian Thuram, Deco, Puyol, Cannavarro, and Robinho.

Serie A
Italian football is famous throughout world. In 2006, Italy won the World Cup. Therefore, it isn't surprising that Serie A, Italy's top football league, is also very strong. It boasts some of the best clubs on the planet, including Inter Milan, A.C. Milan, Juventus, and Roma.

If you are living outside the US, football on tv is more common, especially in Europe and South America. If you don't have a football channel available to you, then you have a couple options.

Option 1. Order it from your tv provider
call 'em, ask 'em if they have it and how much it will cost.

Option 2. Watch on your PC (for free)
Go to www.myp2p.eu, this site has an inventory for all of the major stuff happening on tv around the world. You can choose to download a viewing software like sopcast or tvants or you can just use windows media player. Click on Sports button at the top and scroll down to see the schedule of events. Click on the event that you want to see and a list of channels offering the event on different methods of viewing (like sopcast). Click on a channel and view it. It will stream directly on your computer. The quality is decent usually but it really depends on the channel offering the free service.

Option 3. Go to the local pub and watch it there
This is great for big events. Gather a couple of friends and coworkers and watch big games like world cup or euro 2008 or champions league.

F.C. Barcelona is one of two flagship clubs of La Liga, the Spanish Football League. Some of the best players in the world (like Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Diego Maradona, Messi, Deco, Rivaldo, Cruyff, Figo, etc.) have played for this club at Camp Nou (the Nickname of their stadium). It has won many competitions, both in Spain and in Europe. It has a huge rivalry with Real Madrid, such that the games between them are known as the Clasico. Barca (nickname) is known for its beautiful football and its huge star footballers, and this is the reason it is one of biggest clubs on the planet.

Manchester United is one of EPL's (English Premier League or Premiership) flagship football clubs. Manchester United, managed by Sir Alex Ferguson, is a legendary club that has rose to prominence. More recently, the club won the 2008 UEFA Champions League against EPL rivals Chelsea and 2008 EPL Title. Manchester United has the strongest rivalry with fellow Manchester City. Though United is a much stronger team, boasting Cristiano Ronaldo, Tevez, Rooney, Nani, Anderson, Carrick, etc, City has managed to find a way to beat them, including 2-1 in 2008. Due to difference in caliber, Manchester United has a growing rivalry with other top EPL clubs like Chelsea, Liverpool, and Arsenal. There are millions of Man U fans around the world due to popularity of the club's footballers, including David Beckham.

Visit manchesterunited.com for more info