Why is there only one ball for...

Why is there only one ball for 22 players?  If you gave a ball to each of them, they'd stop fighting for it.

~Author Unknown~

Whenever the ball flew toward ...

Whenever the ball flew toward our goal and a score seemed inevitable, Jesus reached his foot out and cleared the ball.

~Author unknown, from an article in Rio de Janeiro's Jornal dos Sports~

Up to five goals is journalism...

Up to five goals is journalism.  After that, it becomes statistics.

~Author Unknown~

To the aesthete it is an art f...

To the aesthete it is an art form, an athletic ballet.  To the spiritually inclined it is a religion.

~Paul Gardner~

The rules of soccer are very s...

The rules of soccer are very simple, basically it is this:  if it moves, kick it.  If it doesn't move, kick it until it does.

~Phil Woosnam, 1974~

The roots of our Soccer Tribe ...

The roots of our Soccer Tribe lie deep in our primeval past.

~Desmond Morris~

The rest of the world loves so...

The rest of the world loves soccer.  Surely we must be missing something.  Uh, isn't that what the Russians told us about communism?  There's a good reason why you don't care about soccer - it's because you are an American and hating soccer is more American than mom's apple pie, driving a pick-up and spending Saturday afternoon channel-surfing with the remote control.

~Tom Weir~

The goalkeeper is the jewel in...

The goalkeeper is the jewel in the crown and getting at him should be almost impossible.  It's the biggest sin in football to make him do any work.

~George Graham, 1997~

The Glaswegian definition of a...

The Glaswegian definition of an atheist:  a bloke who goes to a Rangers-Celtic match to watch the football.

~Sandy Strang~

Some people say soccer's a mat...

Some people say soccer's a matter of life or death, but it isn't.  It's much more important than that.

~Variation of a famous saying~

Soccer is not about justice.&#...

Soccer is not about justice.  It's a drama - and criminally wrong decisions against you are part and parcel of that.

~Pete Davies~

Soccer is a game in which ever...

Soccer is a game in which everyone does a lot of running around.  Twenty-one guys stand around and one guy does a tap dance with the ball.

~Jim Murray, 1967~

Other countries have their his...

Other countries have their history.  Uruguay has its football.

~Ondino Viera~

In Latin America the border be...

In Latin America the border between soccer and politics is vague.  There is a long list of governments that have fallen or been overthrown after the defeat of the national team.

~Luis Suarez~

If you're attacking, you don't...

If you're attacking, you don't get as tired as when you're chasing.

~Kyle Rote, Jr.~

If this can be termed the cent...

If this can be termed the century of the common man, then soccer, of all sports, is surely his game.... In a world haunted by the hydrogen and napalm bomb, the football field is a place where sanity and hope are still left unmolested.

~Stanley Rous, 1952~

I think football would become ...

I think football would become an even better game if someone could invent a ball that kicks back.

~Eric Morecambe~

I loathed the game, and since ...

I loathed the game, and since I could see no pleasure or usefulness in it, it was very difficult for me to show courage at it. Football, it seemed to me, is not really played for the pleasure of kicking a ball about, but is a species of fighting.

~George Orwell, Such, Such Were the Joys~

Football is the opera of the p...

Football is the opera of the people.

~Stafford Heginbotham, 1985~

Football is all very well as a...

Football is all very well as a game for rough girls, but is hardly suitable for delicate boys.

~Oscar Wilde~