Why football (soccer) is the king of the sports.

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As we all know football is the most popular sport in the world. With only some countries being an exception, football is something more than a sport in most countries - it is craziness, a way of life. From the smaller village to the most isolated island, you can always find youth playing football.

Well I was trying to find an explanation about why football became such a popular sport and I thought it is quite simple, I found three reasons that made football become that popular that it is being called the "king of the sports". I think the basic reasons are these:

1. Football expresses the human nature.
A child just learns to walk in two legs. The next think which is going to do is to run, and then to kick something (ball in our case). Then to create a simple structure - probably to place to stones one next to each other (goalpost?).

2. You can practice football much more easily than the other sports.
To play amateur football, all you need is a ball and two stones or standing sticks placed in a parallel. While to play basketball you need at least a small basketball field, to play baseball you need special suits and a bat, to play rugby you need special suits, to play water polo you need a pool etc.

3. Football eliminates none.
It does not matter if you are short or tall. Even if you are kind of fat you can still play football if you have the talent. On the other side, in basketball you need to be tall, in rugby you need to be bulky etc.

Do you agree with me? What do you think?

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[+5] - fbaezer - 08/30/2006How strange, coming from a Greek! I would say that running, jumping and wrestling are the natural human sports. That's the root the ancient Olympic Games. Now, team sports. The "King of...

Hi Ellinas,

I think football is so popular because it is a sport we can play mainly with the most powerful parts of our bodies (ie our legs) and human beings like to feel powerful, also it is dramatic, it drains our emotions, or can do...

Not much of a reason but it's what occured to me when I read your post...

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How strange, coming from a Greek!
I would say that running, jumping and wrestling are the natural human sports. That's the root the ancient Olympic Games.

Now, team sports.

The "King of Sports" is baseball. But that's a self-definition. Obviously, Football (called "soccer" in some English speaking countries) is by far the most popular sport in the world: it is "The Sport of Mankind".

Why is it so popular?

1. Rules are easy!
2. You don't need to be very strong or very tall.
3. Television.

As for the other reasons, I must say that baseball can be played with a broomstick or any other stick and any smallish ball. American football needs only a ball, it can be played in the streets ("touchy" or "flag football") or in parks, even without the proper gear. But both games are kind of complicated. Basketball does need a hoop.

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fbaezer wrote:

How strange, coming from a Greek!
I would say that running, jumping and wrestling are the natural human sports. That's the root the ancient Olympic Games.

Now, team sports.

The "King of Sports" is baseball. But that's a self-definition. Obviously, Football (called "soccer" in some English speaking countries) is by far the most popular sport in the world: it is "The Sport of Mankind".

Why is it so popular?

1. Rules are easy!
2. You don't need to be very strong or very tall.
3. Television.

As for the other reasons, I must say that baseball can be played with a broomstick or any other stick and any smallish ball. American football needs only a ball, it can be played in the streets ("touchy" or "flag football") or in parks, even without the proper gear. But both games are kind of complicated. Basketball does need a hoop.

I am speaking in a team sports basis. These are the sports played more frequently today, the ones attracting the most people and can be compared to each other. Athletics are a different subject. Probably I should write "king of team sports" Laughing

.

I've heard people from all over Europe referring to football as the king of the sports. Do you call baseball the king of the sports in United States?

I will disagree with you is the television part. Football did not became popular because it was promoted by television. Television is promoting football because it is the most popular sport. Football was the most popular sport even when TV was not as wide-spread as today. You are maybe partly right, as TV promoted football in the far East and other Asian countries, but it is not what made football the most popular sport.

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Baseball is called "King of Sports" at least in Mexico, while football is "The Game of Mankind".

On TV and football we can have the age old question of what came first the chicken or the egg.

At least in Mexico, football has always been popular, but it was pushed by television a few decades so to displace baseball and have no competition as the country's most popular sport.
Boxing used to be popular, but since it became pay-per-view it fell out of the public's taste. On the contrary, American style football was a university students-only game, until they started pushing the NFL on TV.

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@Ellinas,

A good game of soccer is slightly more boring than a paint drying competition. I find the antics of some of its prancing prima donnas absolutely insulting.

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yea you dont NEED special gear for rugby or baseball. Your just saying that to make soccer (football) sound better. Its not

1 Reply

@kyle comino,

i'll agree with rugby, but not baseball, even if the teams share equipment you need a bat, a ball, and nine gloves for a full team, in a lot of poor countries soccer is king because it requires a ball and nothing more

1 Reply

@djjd62,

Sometimes not even a ball. I've seen games in Brazil that used a bunch of newspapers wadded up with tape around them, or even an orange or other piece of fruit. The goals were just two rocks, or two shoes.

1 Reply

@Robert Gentel,

true, the greenhouse i worked at had guys from st vincents come up to work one year, before they had a chance to buy a soccer ball, they took thin foam sheets that were used to cushion the tomatoes and balled them up and bound it in tape, instant ball

1 Reply

@djjd62,

In Brazil the best game I ever played was with a bit of foam too, but we soaked it in alcohol and lit it on fire. It worked surprisingly well, the flame didn't go out and the alcohol burns at a relatively low temperature so nobody's shoes caught fire.

I still remember the whooshing sound it would make when you kicked it and the oxygen fed the flames....

1 Reply

@Robert Gentel,

later in the year they took pallets apart and carved cricket bats, interesting to watch, but i could never really understand it

1 Reply

@djjd62,

Cricket is easy to understand for anybody to whom deviousness is second nature.

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@Ellinas,

Ellinas wrote:

Quote:

As we all know football is the most popular sport in the world.

I don 't know that; I have no opinion about it.

Ellinas wrote:

Quote:

With only some countries being an exception,
football is something more than a sport in most countries -
it is craziness, a way of life.

Then a mental health care professional is needed to relieve the problem;
a psychologist or psychiatrist. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder ?

Ellinas wrote:

Quote:

From the smaller village to the most isolated island,
you can always find youth playing football.

That seems unlikely.
Esquimos near the North Pole?
Indians of the Amazon Rain Forest?

Ellinas wrote:

Quote:

Well I was trying to find an explanation about why football
became such a popular sport and I thought it is quite simple,
I found three reasons that made football become that popular
that it is being called the "king of the sports". I think the basic reasons are these:

1. Football expresses the human nature.
A child just learns to walk in two legs. The next think which is
going to do is to run, and then to kick something (ball in our case).
Then to create a simple structure - probably to place to stones
one next to each other (goalpost?).

2. You can practice football much more easily than the other sports.
To play amateur football, all you need is a ball and two stones
or standing sticks placed in a parallel. While to play basketball you
need at least a small basketball field, to play baseball you need
special suits and a bat, to play rugby you need special suits,
to play water polo you need a pool etc.

3. Football eliminates none.
It does not matter if you are short or tall. Even if you are kind of
fat you can still play football if you have the talent. On the other side,
in basketball you need to be tall, in rugby you need to be bulky etc.

Do you agree with me? What do you think?

I think that as to health benefits,
thay 'd be better off just lifting weights and running and swimming.

As to watching athletic competition:
I have no preference as to which group of strangers prevails
over any other group of strangers. Regardless of which group
of strangers succeeds on any particular day, I will be no better off
and no worse off; (unless I bet on the outcome).

To me, competitive atheletics is a waste of time,
with the possible exception of those who actually participate.

I do see value in swimming practice, gunnery practice and archery practice to develop proficiency.

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

Ellinas wrote:

Quote:
From the smaller village to the most isolated island,
you can always find youth playing football.

That seems unlikely.
Esquimos near the North Pole?
Indians of the Amazon Rain Forest?

David

http://www.epltalk.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/football-on-the-ice.jpg

http://flordeucayali.files.wordpress.com/2007/09/img-12.jpg

You are entitled to your opinions about competitive sport, but football (soccer) is played everywhere in the world.

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Oh, and here's a link to the site of the Greenland Football Federation.

http://www.gbu.gl/

(Nagdlunguaq-48 is the current champion of their first division league)

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It is noticeable that David favours individual sports to team games. Team games are character building, social and inhibit natural narcissism.

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@spendius,

As to group sports, like football or baseball:
I see absolutely no difference as to which group succeeds.
What the hell DIFFERENCE does it make WHO wins ??

1 Reply

@spendius,

spendius wrote:

It is noticeable that David favours individual sports to team games.
Team games are character building, social and inhibit natural narcissism.

HOW r thay character building ?

0 Replies

@OmSigDAVID,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

What the hell DIFFERENCE does it make WHO wins ??

agree, i rarely watch any sports except for playoffs, and watch more for the caliber of play rather than any particular allegiance to any team

1 Reply

Why football (soccer) is the king of the sports.

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