To say that these men paid their shillings to watch twenty-two hirelings kick a ball is merely to say that a violin is wood and catgut, that Hamlet is so much paper and ink. – J.B. Priestley, The Good Companions, 1928
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
Football is the opera of the people. – Stafford Heginbotham, 1985
A sport where the players actually enjoy getting hit in the head by a ball. – Soccer advertisement, published for the MetroStars Major League Soccer team, 199
Concerning football playing, I protest to you it may rather be called a friendly kind of fighting, rather than recreation. – Author Unknown
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
I get a kick out of soccer. – Author Unknown
Football is all very well as a game for rough girls, but is hardly suitable for delicate boys. – Oscar Wilde
Other countries have their history. Uruguay has its football. – Ondino Viera
The roots of our Soccer Tribe lie deep in our primeval past. – Desmond Morris
To the aesthete it is an art form, an athletic ballet. To the spiritually inclined it is a religion. – Paul Gardner
The goal was scored a little bit by the hand of God, a little by the head of Maradona. – Diego Maradona, 1986
The Glaswegian definition of an atheist: a bloke who goes to a Rangers-Celtic match to watch the football. – Sandy Strang
I think football would become an even better game if someone could invent a ball that kicks back. – Eric Morecambe
Up to five goals is journalism. After that, it becomes statistics. – Author Unknown
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
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
