VIDEO: Robo Cup 2017 Kicks Off to Remind Humanity That it Has Nothing to Fear From Robots...Yet

Forget the World Cup in Russia...the Robo Cup 2017 has officially kicked off!

Japanese inventors look to try and recreate football - the sport that humans can already play - with robots; because, well, why not?

1995 saw the Japanese come up with a dream - to create robots that can play football. Apparently at the time, the footballing quality of human standard wasn't quite up to scratch. The likes of George Weah, Jurgen Klinsmann or Michael Laudrup weren't impressive enough for them, and two years later the Japanese city of Nagoya hosted the first ever robot footballing tournament.

Fast forward 20 years, and Robo Cup 2017 has kicked off, boasting all sorts of technological 'advancements' - as you can see in the video below:

Why watch Lionel Messi dribble through an entire team before scoring when you can watch a bunch of robots continually fall over in an attempt to kick a ball?

According to Tech Radar, the Robo Cup has all sorts of different types of football, including humanoid, standard platform, middle size, small size and simulation categories as well as a penalty shootout.

Truly riveting.

Aside from the football though, Robo Cup does seem to actually have some form of dignity to it; with an 'industrial league' - to bring about work-related challenges; the 'rescue league' - designed to create disaster scenarios that the robots could help overcome; and finally, the 'home league' - applying technologies to everyday lives.

Let's be honest, as silly as it seems, those football matches look hilarious, purely because of the complete inadequacy of the robots involved.