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FOOTBALL & SCHAFFHAUSEN - The IWC DFB 2008 Split Second Chronograph
**The Origins of Soccer**
The Munich Ethnological Museum in Germany has a Chinese text from approximately 50 B.C. that mentions games very similar to soccer that were played between teams from Japan and China. Some historians believe that soccer could be traced back to the Japanese as far as 1004 BC.
The Romans played a game that somewhat resembled modern soccer. The early Olympic games in Rome featured twenty-seven men on a side who completed so vigorously that two-thirds of them had to be hospitalized after a fifty-minute game.
Mesoamerican civilizations also devised a game played with rubber balls, which resembled a combination between soccer, basketball and volleyball. The game involved two teams, playing in a sort of basin dug below ground level, with baskets strapped in several locations on the side walls. The teams would then have to kick the ball towards these baskets, and score a goal.
The Chinese kicked a leather ball ( hair-filled ) and it is known with certainty that a soccer game was played in 611 A.D. in the then Japanese capital, Kyoto.
Oh well.....Many different cultures have played a sport similar to the modern game of soccer but no one can really say with any certainty when or where soccer began but it is known that the earlier variations of what later became soccer were played almost >3000 years ago.
While historians kept records of events such as wars and religious movements they had very little interest in preserving the various origins of soccer or many other sports, so no one can say how soccer seems to have spread from Asia to Europe.
**Soccer is Evil!**
In King Edward's reign of England, laws were passed that threatened imprisonment to anyone caught playing soccer. King Edward's proclamation said:" For as much as there is a great noise in the city caused by hustling over large balls, from which many evils may arise, which God forbid, we command and forbid on behalf of the King, on pain of imprisonment, such game to be used in the city future."
Evidently judged to be vulgar and indecent, soccer was at times suppressed by the English sheriffs who followed royal orders describing the game as a useless practice. King Henry IV and Henry VIII passed laws against the sport, and Queen Elizabeth I "had soccer players jailed for a week, with follow-up church penance".
**The Irony of Soccer**
The great irony is that in England, where soccer was originally banned, today is main exporter of modern soccer to every continent in the world. Undisputedly soccer is the most watched and played sport in the world enjoyed by 8 million people. This past World cup, that took place in the united States was watched by an estimated 33 million people around the world for almost 27 days. This makes soccer, the most watched single sports event in the world not surpassed even by the Olympics. This sport is bigger than baseball, football and basketball combined. Every 4 years the World Cup takes place and this causes a worldwide frenzy of individuals reporting to their family GPs with "World Cup Red Eye Syndrome" - especially if you lived in a different time zone from where the match was taking place.
**Traffic Lights and Soccer Cards**
Misconduct in association football is any conduct by a player which is deemed by the referee to warrant a disciplinary sanction (caution or dismissal) in accordance with Law 12 of the Laws of the Game. Misconduct may occur at any time, including when the ball is out of play, during half-time and before and after the game. Further, both players and substitutes may be sanctioned for misconduct. This is unlike fouls, which may only be committed by players, and only against an opponent when the ball is in play.
Misconduct may result in the player either receiving a caution (indicated by a yellow card) or being dismissed from the field (indicated by a red card). When a player is cautioned, the player's details are then (traditionally) recorded by the referee in a small notebook; hence a caution is also known as a booking. The referee has considerable discretion in applying the Laws. In particular, the offence of "unsporting behaviour" may be used to deal with most events that violate the spirit of the game, even if they are not listed as specific offences.
LEFT: Ken Aston, FIFA Referee
The system of cautioning and dismissal has existed for many decades, but the idea of language-neutral coloured cards originated with British referee [I]Ken Aston[/I], who got the idea while sitting in his car at a traffic light. The first major use of the cards was in the 1970 FIFA World Cup, but they were not made mandatory at all levels until 1982.
Author's Note: The only card I am willing to accept this instance is a IWC Warranty Card! *Grin grin*
**German Soccer team and Swiss Relations**
The German national football team (German: Die deutsche Fußballnationalmannschaft) From 1950 to 1990, the team was also informally called West Germany in English, as since World War II, the DFB is based in the Federal Republic of Germany which was commonly referred to as West Germany from 1949 to 1990. The DFB continues to field the German national team that had been fully reinstated by FIFA after the 1950 FIFA World Cup, retaining all records and traditions. Under Allied occupation and division, two other separate "national" teams had also been recognized by FIFA, the Saarland team (1950–1956), and the East German team (1952–1990). Both have been absorbed into the current national team, along with their records (caps and goal scorers). The official name and code "Germany FR (FRG)" has been shortened again to "Germany (GER)" since 1990.
German Soccer Team Posing with IWC Ju-52 Aircraft
Germany is one of the three most successful national teams at international competitions, having won a total of three World Cups and three European championships. East Germany won Olympic Gold in 1976. Germany is the only nation to have won both the men's and women's World Cups.
Since their penalty shootout loss to Czechoslovakia in Euro 76, Germany has not lost a penalty shootout in major international tournaments. In fact, the last penalty missed by a German player dates back to the semi-finals of the 1982 World Cup when French goalkeeper Jean-Luc Ettori saved Uli Stielike's shot. In particular, Germany defeated England in semi-final shoouts in the 1990 World Cup and Euro 96.
German teams have something of a tradition of beginning their history against Switzerland: The first match ever of the German national team, the first match after World War I in 1920, the first match after World War II in 1950 when Germany was still banned from most international competitions, and the first match in 1990 with former East German players were all against Switzerland. Germany's first championship title was even won in Switzerland. Most of the home games (7 since 1911) were at Stuttgart's Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion. Klaus Fischer also scored Germany's ARD Goal of the Century there against the Swiss in 1977, with a bicycle kick (fallrückzieher), his trademark move (with which he also scored the important 3:3 equalizer in extra-time (108th minute) at the 1982 FIFA World Cup vs France, a goal that was not chosen for the Top 10 of the WC Goal of the Century.
Before u fall asleep on me, Here's a pic of the German Team (Volleyball! Woo hoo!)
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IWC PILOT'S WATCH DOUBLE CHRONOGRAPH EDITION DFB
Even before the starting whistle for the Euro 2008 in Switzerland and Austria, IWC Schaffhausen is producing a football highlight. The Swiss manufactory will supply the official watch of the German national football team with the Pilot's Watch Double Chronograph Edition DFB, of which precisely 500 examples will be built.
The German footballers are starting the European Cup with the Pilot's Watch Double Chronograph Edition DFB, a masculine timepiece with characteristics that could serve as the model for the team's approach to the game. The double chronograph impressively combines dynamics, creativity, precision, robustness and reliability. With this watch, these top German players will always be on the button in the truest sense of the word.
The two chronograph buttons permit the recording of aggregate times up to twelve hours, and the third button controls the split-seconds mechanism developed by IWC: It stops the split-seconds hand in order to measure an intermediate time within any one-minute period, and then it allows that hand to fly back and become synchronized with the running stop time.
IWC has modified the minute graduations especially for the DFB watch. An area marked out as a square indicates the passage of 45 minutes, the duration of one half of the game, and red numerals show any extra time. This totalizer is thus integrated harmoniously into the overall appearance of the dial, which is finished in the DFB team colours. The dial's background colour is white, corresponding to the home strip, while the numerals and the totalizer are black, like the players' socks. The two red seconds hands and the yellow split-seconds hand complement the colour scheme. A black soft strap with anthracite-grey decorative stitching, which contributes to the watch's overall elegance, ensures a comfortable fit on the wrist.
An engraving on the steel case back identifies the chronograph as the "Official Watch of the German National Football Team". This inscription borders the relief DFB logo at the centre of the back. The serial number of the watch, which is limited to 500 copies, can also be found here. All the players on the European Cup squad will receive a watch bearing their individual number on the back of their strip, and the first 50 watches are reserved exclusively for the DFB.
May I Have the pleasure of sharing with you some pictures of my own
I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed creating it 
