This week's main report looks at the earliest version of the Beautiful Game, Folk Football, which emerged during the Middle Ages in England. The transcript can be found below, while vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

Listen to the report here Introduction

Football has often been described as the people's game it is, after all, the most popular sport in the world with millions playing each week.

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Remember a few years ago how everyone --myself included-- was all OMFG when "How Soccer Explains The World Came Out"? I was all tits-over-tail about and then my man Tom Fina, The Angriest Man in Metrolandâ„¢, hit me with the heat one night that "Frank Foer is just Kuper light".
Intrigued, I had to find out who this Simon Kuper was so I read his engrossing "Soccer Against the Enemy" and found myself swiftly agreeing with Fina. Click to continue reading...

Growing up playing soccer in the United States is both a blessing and a curse. Most of us became fans of the most popular sport in the entire world, yet in the United States the sport has a third tier status that receives only a fraction of coverage and attention of the major sports in the US. I am old enough to remember the rise and fall of the North American Soccer League.

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Perhaps my most powerful experience of soccer fandom, amidst years of following MLS, the English Premier League, and the World Cup, came in a college basketball arena at the University of Portland (UP) in the early winter of 2005. Along with a thousand locals, I watched a projected ESPN feed from Texas of a national championship game where my little University team (~3500 students) was playing the giants of UCLA (~38000 students).

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Preview: Why England Lose by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski
Did you know Arsene Wenger has a master's degree in economics? And what has he learnt from it? Don't buy old players, buy in them their early 20s and sell them as soon as someone offers more than you think they are worth.
Another insightfull take from the Australian Financial Review:

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The languagecaster team have often been asked why we chose to focus on language learning through football. Well, apart from being two language teachers with a love for the game, we thought it might be interesting to offer teachers some alternative content for their language classes.

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Soccer is the most popular sport in the world and has literally become a mass phenomenon. The game of soccer involves two teams of eleven players, a referee, a ball and two goals. The objective of the game is to put the ball in the old onion bag using your feet or your head. The [...] Click to continue reading...

Soccer is the most popular sport in the world and has literally become a mass phenomenon. The game of soccer involves two teams of eleven players, a referee, a ball and two goals. The objective of the game is to put the ball in the old onion bag using your feet or your head. The [...] Click to continue reading...

It's the perfect time of the year to catch up on reading, so what better choice is there to read than some of the greatest football books?

In conjunction with our sister site EPL Talk, we've put together a list of the top 18 recommended football books for this summer. Some of the highlights that US soccer fans will enjoy include:

• Soccer In A Football World by David Wangerin.

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The global success of the English Premier League coupled with the Manchester United's success in the last two decades has helped propel the English football club into pole position as the most recognisable brand in the world's most popular sport.

This success hasn't gone unnoticed.

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Have you been watching the Confederations Cup from South Africa?
So far, so good.
A great game yesterday between African champions Egypt against Brazil, which ended on a controversial penalty called by English referee Howard Webb. 4-3 was the final score for Brazil but the Egyptians have nothing to be ashamed about. Click to continue reading...

Questions to Aussie media and sports fans: What is South Africa's most popular sport?
Cricket? Wrong
Rugby Union? Wrong
AFL..well some Melbourne guys keep telling me it's huge in South Africa? Wrong.
It's football not that you'd ever see it or know it from the Aussie media over the years. Click to continue reading...

Now it's a sure thing. Right?
He's gonna be on the Board of Directors for the USA Bid Committee. He's gonna smile, shake hands and say whatever needs to be said to bring some money to California.
Here are good quotes:

"Soccer is the world's most popular sport and California has been home to some of its most exciting games, and I am proud to be a part of bringing the World Cup back to the United States," said Governor Schwarzenegger.

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Remember ESPN's ‘One Game Changes Everything' ad campaign for the 2006 World Cup in Germany?
Simple. Poignant. Brilliant.
On Tuesday, ESPN executive vice president of content John Skipper said the network plans its "biggest marketing campaign ever" for the 2010 World Cup. Click to continue reading...

Here in America, ESPN is truly the "Worldwide Leader In Sports." Millions of people wake up with Sportscenter in the morning, and go to bed with it on in the evening. Anyone in America that follows sports seemingly gets their information from ESPN.

The only problem? ESPN has literally no respect for soccer.

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