The history of association football, known simply as football, is usually considered from 1863, the year of the founding of The Football Association, and current football, the sport as it is known today, has its origins in the British Isles. The first British codes that gave rise to association football were characterized by little organization and extreme violence. The definitive formation of association football had its climax during the 19th century. In 1848 representatives of different English colleges met at Cambridge University to create the Cambridge code, which would function as the basis for the creation of modern football regulations. Finally in 1863 in London the first association football rules were made official. Since then soccer has grown steadily, to become the most popular sport in the world with some 270 million people involved, with the first meeting of the International Football Association Board in 1886 and the founding of FIFA in 1904, the sport has expanded to reach all corners of the world. Starting in 1930, the World Cup of Soccer would begin, which would become the sporting event with the largest audience on the planet.
