The Global Popularity of Football

Often described as being the ‘Global Game’ or as being a ‘Global Language’, football’s status as an international sport is without question. It’s easy to see why, both in its simplicity and complexity. However, its failure to catch on in every country remains a subject of personal curiosity.
Football is no doubt the easiest participation sport in the world; all you need is a football and a decent imagination to create two goalposts (trees, shoes, jumpers and sticks were my choices as a child). The game can be utilised to include any number of players and the rules seem simple enough to understand; kick it into the opposing goal. No membership fee and no expensive equipment required.
As you grow up from the kid playing on the park, the game can grow with you. Things like the offside law begin to matter, and tactical debates can start. Man marking or zonal? 4-4-2 or 4-5-1? False 9 or target man? As a child you were never interested in phases of play or the pros and cons of inverted wingers, yet the game remains equally enjoyable whether you take an interest in the details or not. One could even argue that football video games highlight this.
You could play the FIFA series where you play the matches and score the goals (you can even celebrate the goals now!) or you could play the Football Manager series, which subtracts from the playing experience but adds to the level of detail off the field. Such is the difference between the two that Football Manager doesn’t allow you to actually play the game; you sit (or stand in your matchday suit, depending on how much you get immersed into it) and watch a computer simulation of the tactics you created. Both games are hugely successful despite both focusing on different aspects of football. This is an example of the dual nature of football, the simplicity and complexity, and how it caters for all types; the casual players, the dedicated analysts and even the ones willing to sit and write about it!
Given that fact, it is unsurprising that the sport has taken off all over the world. Or at least most of it. In most areas of the world you’ll find football as the top sport, yet in other areas it doesn’t seem popular at all.
If you travel to South America or Africa, you’ll find football having an almost religious status. I myself was fortunate enough to go to a deprived area of Namibia in 2010 where I met school children up to the age of fourteen. They asked where I was from and from my response of ‘England’ they instantly associated it to Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard. When the children got any kind of break time from school they would run out onto a football pitch and fashion a ball from socks and t-shirts. When we introduced a brand new football that we had brought with us, the whole school was evacuated to a nearby field where a 70-a-side match broke out. It was clear that after their education, football was their life.
South America’s love of football is legendary, commonly associated to Brazil and the support they have. The image of the children playing on the narrow street is by no means just a stereotype; the variant sport, futsal, was borne out of this style of play. Football is also popular in Asia, a market that you can see being exploited by many teams touring that region of the globe in pre-season. There may be no domestic league worth shouting about in Asia, but the European teams are followed to the level of fanaticism similar to their more local supporters. Europe is another continent where football remains the most popular and participated sport. This just leaves North America and Oceania; here it is a different story.
Not only is football not a hugely popular sport in these regions, it seems to almost have a negative reputation; seen as a less manly sport than others. I’m not denying that you get football supporters in these regions, but I would safely state that the majority of sports fans are not football fans. In America you find that baseball, basketball, hockey and their own twisted brand of football are more popular than what they call ‘soccer’. It is true that football in America is growing, this is seen by more and more pre-season tours to America as well as this shocking statistic; average attendance crowds for the MLS (Major League Soccer) are higher than the average attendance in Brazil’s domestic league. This is partly explained by the nature of Brazilian support (you only go through the turnstiles if your team is winning) and there are clearly other ways to measure the popularity of a sport. Nevertheless, football is nowhere near the top sport in America. I can only wonder; why?
If you take a trip to Oceania, you will see cricket and rugby as the top sports. Particularly in New Zealand, where their national team, the All Blacks, have an almost demi-god status which even rivals the esteem that other nations hold their own football team in. I must also give a mention to India, where cricket is king.
In trying to find an explanation for this occurrence, I draw a blank. The only link I can possibly make between Australia, New Zealand, India and America is that they were possibly the most important colonies of the British Empire. This seems curious; surely the regions of the world most influenced by Britain would play the number one British sport. It seems to be rather the opposite, former colonies have taken on their own sports while the rest of the world adopts football as their national sport.
It’s easy to see how football can become so globally popular, with its ability to cater for all types. What remains a relative mystery is how the sport can cover most of the globe but miss out a few notable countries. Football in America is on the rise but I doubt it will rise to become anywhere near the greatest sport in the country. However, if you go to most regions of the world with a football in hand, you can instantly form bonds with strangers who have a different culture and language to your own. That, in my mind, is nothing short of magical.
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