If you ever want to start an argument in a bar, casually ask people whether they think football or soccer is the best sport. It doesn’t matter where you are in the country – or the world – the debate will continue for what will seem like forever as you catch a chance to move away and enjoy your drink in peace.
For many, the debate is irrelevant. But that definitely doesn’t stop sports fans from offering an opinion. Millions of websites are devoted to football and soccer, and many of them will offer up an opinion of their own. You can browse the football betting apps or the soccer sports markets for hours and never be bored. Sports is all-encompassing, and everyone has their favorite.
Some like football and soccer, of course. But it will usually depend on where you are in the world as to which is your number one. So, as the debate rages on, we thought we would look at some of the similarities and differences between the two sports – and try to answer that all-important question.
Compare and Contrast
You will unlikely ever be mistaken about what sport you are watching. Even at lower levels than the NFL, football requires players to suit up in body armor, including a helmet. Soccer is easier for the players, with minimal protection needed because of the relatively low-impact nature of the game.
There may be 11 players from each team on the field at any one time in both sports. But the similarities end around there. Football has its roots in rugby, and, ironically, it is soccer where the players use their feet more. Hey, we don’t think you should blame us for this, we didn’t make the rules!
Naming Rights
What is it with the naming of these two sports? Remember when we told you how to start an argument in a bar at the beginning of this article? Now try calling soccer “soccer” in the UK and see what kind of reaction you get. But although Americans are attacked for calling it soccer these days, the English first coined the phrase.
Back in the late 1800s, when soccer was first becoming popular, fans of the new sport decided to shorten the official title of “association football”. They took the “soc” and added an “-er” at the end, which was a trend of the time. Americans went with that, although the English returned to “football” in the mid-20th Century. The two are more interchangeable worldwide, but the wrong use in some parts can still cause a scene.
Popularity
Football – as in the NFL sport – is not played by many people in most places in the world. But it is probably the most popular sport in the US – a country with a bigger population than most other countries. But soccer is regarded as the “world’s game,” and the numbers certainly back that up.
It is estimated that there are around 400 million football fans worldwide. That’s not bad until you realize that soccer can count on around 3.5 billion. Soccer has definitely won out in this category. In fact, football doesn’t even come anywhere near the world fan numbers for other sports, such as cricket, tennis, and even volleyball.
NFL Plans
Although the NFL can only count on around 400 million fans tuning in to watch its games, it is home to some of the world’s wealthiest sports organizations. There is a lot of money in the NFL system. But there is also a desire to make the sport more popular than soccer around the world.
The recent announcement that flag football is going to be included in the 2024 Summer Olympics is a step towards that goal.
The NFL has also been playing more games overseas in recent seasons, with London, Frankfurt, and Mexico City all hosting regular season games. It will be a tough task for the NFL to become the biggest league in the world – but there is definitely the desire and money available to work towards that.
“World” Champions
A major reason for the NFL’s plans to become bigger than soccer is the money involved. But there are other more semantic reasons as well. Soccer fans have long derided football – and other major US sports – for crowning their champions as champions of the World.
Football and basketball refer to their champions in this way, and baseball even has a World Series in which the best two teams battle it out. Soccer may have a World Cup, but deciding which international team is the best is a tournament. When you only have teams from one country (with maybe Canada), can you call the winners “World champions”?
A New King?
While we are concentrating on the relative merits and popularity of soccer and football, another trend might make a dent in those plans for world domination by the NFL we were talking about a minute ago. The fact is that basketball is now beginning to become the favorite sport of Americans.
Football has long been the most popular sport, but recent research shows that younger fans are beginning to favor hoops over football. The shorter games and quick-fire action could be reasons for the drift, but it could mean that football and soccer will only fight for second place in the future – in the US.
