When we’re talking about the most popular sports in the world, nothing comes quite as close to the supremacy that soccer currently holds. With an estimated 3 billion fans from across the planet, soccer’s popularity is undeniable, and it’s a true global force that most other sports can only aspire to.
Fundamentally, however, soccer isn’t that much different from many other team-based sports. Many of the specific rules and goals of the game are almost identical to a number of others, yet it outstrips all of its main competitors in terms of the number of fans it has alongside the amount of international events that take place every year. But what makes soccer different, and why has it come to dominate the sporting world? There are a few different reasons that can answer these questions.
Its Age
The game of soccer as we know today hasn’t really changed since it was first popularised. We have been playing some form of soccer for thousands of years, and the fundamental goals of the game back then are pretty much the same as they are today, with the central focus being on getting the ball through an opponent’s side of the field. Soccer has had countless centuries to become part of the general public, and although it’s changed and adapted tremendously in that time, it’s always been enjoyed as a past time.
The Simplicity
This ties in closely with the previous entry in that the game of soccer has always been simple, but this simplicity is what has always drawn people to it. When we consider a game like cricket, for example, it requires that players invest in a certain amount of gear to play, there are many more rules to keep in mind, and everything needs to follow specific guidelines in order for a match to be completed properly.
This makes a game like cricket much harder to just play with friends out on the local fields, where it’s so much easier to get a hold of a soccer ball and kick it around. Simplicity will always be more appealing to most people, and for good reason, which is also why pastimes like horse racing and horse racing betting fun remain a favourite.
Much Shorter
Soccer matches are some of the shortest in the world, with an average time of around 90 minutes. Other sports, such as baseball, can take up to 4 hours to reach a conclusion, and by that stage, most of the players and the audience are utterly exhausted, and it can really kill the passion for what’s going on.
Soccer, on the other hand, offers a short burst of excitement that’s easy to maintain and doesn’t draw on hours of an audience’s attention span, something that has become even more important in our current world. This means that it’s more likely for a person to watch a soccer game to the end, and allows them to hold on that adrenaline-filled thrill of the ending all the way to the closing minutes.
