Foul play plays a large part in the discussion of today's soccer. Soccer, rooted in a bloody past with its links to ancient ball games, such as the Persian buzkashi, Mesoamerican peloya and the Roman game of harpastum, which in all, generally involved extreme violence, blood sacrifices and heavy injuries (Peiser, 1996).
From these roots arose today's most popular sport, where the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) represented, in 1993 up to around 150 million active players, while an estimated 400 to 500 million people play soccer world-wide (Peiser, 1996). The far-reaching nature of such a sport demands attention to be given to foul play on the field and its associated risks.
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