Why Football is a global sport
Three for me, and two for them.
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78 nations have competed in a Football World Cup finals tournament.
Compare this to:
Rugby WC - 23 nations
Cricket WC - 19
League WC - 17 (including seperate England and Wales sides
plus NZ Maori)
Netball WC - 16
Americas Cup - 10
Add on to this the fact that 24 nations have made the final
four at the Football WC and you get the picture.
Not having a dig at these sports at all, more so having a
dig at sections of the media in the country who are insular within
their field.
Three for me, and two for them.
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I dont have the exact figures but i believe that the Rugby WC is being broadcast to 26 countries, whereas the recently played U20 world cup was shown to 150.
the numbers speak for themselves really.
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I think it's because football is fun to play and good to watch, and
all you really need is a football. Some other sports, take Hockey
for example, they need a ball, plus everyone needs to get
themselves a stick.
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Yep, football is the most popular because it's the easiest to play
and you only need a ball pretty much. Games like rugby are very
involved and have many rules that can get complicated.
The reason I love football is the fact that anyone can play it and the rules are easy to understand/never under dispute.
valeo2007-08-09 20:08:54
The reason I love football is the fact that anyone can play it and the rules are easy to understand/never under dispute.
valeo2007-08-09 20:08:54
a.haak
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Thats what appealed to me and got me into the sport in the first
place! I like uncertainty in sports, most RWC's you'd expect the
All Blacks to win, for hockey, Team Canada, lacrosse (the sport I
play) is USA...okay those are all bad examples because the most
recent winners are England, Sweden and Canada respectively, but
still haha. The AB's are expected to win every test. Where's the
fun in that? I love an upset.
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I'm sorry, but we own the US at lacrosse. It is our national sport.
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Damn right! Haha. I wish then results reflected that though (USA
won 8 out of 10 World Championships)
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I like uncertainty in sports, most RWC's you'd expect the All
Blacks to win,
they don't though, do they?
All I do is make the stuff I would've liked
Reference things I wanna watch, reference girls I wanna bite
Now I'm firefly like a burning kite
And yousa fake fuck like a fleshlight
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Hence why I like RWC's :P Gotta love an upset
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Damn right! Haha. I wish then results reflected that though (USA
won 8 out of 10 World Championships)
That's just because we're bigger on box lacrosse than field as
that's what all our players grow up on. But, we've won both world
indoor lacrosse championships, with the runner up both times being
Iroquois, who are mostly Canadian first nations as well.
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You'd think I'd remember that :P Ah well, I play field. Not really
much in the way of box down here. I'm not complaining though - i'm
a goalie AND a student. You know how much it would kill me to get
box goalie gear? haha
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You'd think I'd remember that :P Ah well, I play field. Not really
much in the way of box down here. I'm not complaining though - i'm
a goalie AND a student. You know how much it would kill me to get
box goalie gear? haha
LOL, I played goalie in box from when I was 13 onwards and
would always rent a set from the league. Then when i was 16 the
league was just so disorganized they just never asked for it back.
So I still have it.
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You'd think I'd remember that :P Ah well, I play field. Not really
much in the way of box down here. I'm not complaining though - i'm
a goalie AND a student. You know how much it would kill me to get
box goalie gear? haha
LOL, I played goalie in box from when I was 13 onwards and
would always rent a set from the league. Then when i was 16 the
league was just so disorganized they just never asked for it back.
So I still have it.
At least you had a league to rent from haha! ATM lacrosse is just a league in Auckland and pockets in some other cities. We're only just about to do some REAL inter-provincial play this year, with our tour to Auckland next October. Lacrosse is yet another awesome sport that need its awesomeness to be recognised by the New Zealand populace, just like football.
And hockey. They ALMOST built a rink here in the capital, dammiit!
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78 nations have competed in a Football World Cup finals
tournament.
Don't forget the qualifiers. I don't follow rugby but I
do know that for the last rugby world cup 8 of the 20
finalists did not even have to qualify - they don't
really have enough nations to need a
proper qualifying round.
Here's some stats (taken from my WC06 spreadsheet):
- 199 countries entered the 2006 World Cup - only one
qualifies automatically.
- There are 208 countries in FIFA - 16 more than the UN.
- 204 of these have entered at least one WC.
- I am not counting defunct nations (USSR, Czechoslovakia,
East Germany, SAAR etc) in the 204.
- The 9 that didn't enter 2006 were Bhutan, Brunei,
Cambodia, Comoros, Djibouti, East Timor, Montenegro,
Phillippines and Puerto Rico. Montenegro, Comoros and East
Timor did not join FIFA in time for the 2006 tournament. Of the
others, only Bhutan have never entered a tournament.
- There are 7 countries in the UN not in FIFA.
- These 7 are Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Monaco,
Nauru, Palau, Tuvalu.
- There are 20 countries in FIFA but not in the UN.
- These 20 are American Samoa, Anguilla, Aruba, Bermuda,
British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Chinese Taipei, Cook
Islands, Faroe Islands, Guam, Hong Kong, Macau, Montserrat,
Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, Palestine, Puerto Rico,
Tahiti, Turks & Cacaos Islands, US Virgin Islands.
- That does not include the separation of the UK into its
constituent elements.
- By the way, there are 33 countries not on FIFA or the UN. I
won't list these unless you ask. The 33 excludes nations without
states, self-proclaimed micronations, governments in exile, or
dependent territories without an indigenous population. There are
precedents for many of these 33 to one day gain recognition
from FIFA if they applied.
Some people like to claim the Olympics is bigger, even though
it is a collection of lots of different sports (including football)
and not really a single tournament like the World Cup.
- There are 7 countries in FIFA that do not enter the Olympics
- Anguilla, Faroe Islands, Macao, Montserrat, New Caledonia,
Tahiti, Turks & Cacaos Islands.
- The 7 non-FIFA countries in the UN are all Olympic members.
All of these have football teams and play regularly, though I could
not find a record of any results for Marshall Islands, Palau or
Tuvalu but all 3 football teams are listed in Oceania Sports
references.
There is only one global game. That's why football is
called the World Game.
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I dont have the exact figures but i believe that the Rugby WC is being broadcast to 26 countries, whereas the recently played U20 world cup was shown to 150.
the numbers speak for themselves really.
Indeed. On metrics, the U20 World Cup is the biggest
sports tournament of 2007.
SiNZ2007-08-17 13:51:00
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