AHC: Make football a popular sport worldwide.

Pangur

Pangur

Donor
Derek Pullem said:
Or perhaps it's because until recently Association Football was a minority sport in those English speaking countries

Date Leagues founded

England 1888
Scotland 1890

Canada 1912 (or 2018 - depends what you call a national league)
Eire 1921 (and it's normally called football not soccer)
Australia 1977
USA 1988
New Zealand 2005

The only corruption of language has come from the countries which already had a strong "football" sport, be it rugby, gaelic, Australian rules or American rules.

Besides - even if you add up the total population of the "soccer" playing countries they are no more than 5% of the world (and I bet most hispanics would refer to it as futbol not soccer)

But to get back to the OP - American Football is probably one of the few sports that is becoming less accessible, more complicated and higher cost of entry to casual players in its competition format not more. That is never going to work well for mass participation
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Leagues, fair enough however I dispute your 5% is way of the mark Pretty much every nation has a crack at making the world cup and that game is played in most parts of the world even if its kids playing with a rolled up rag and piles of stones to mark the goal mouths are
 
Pangur

Pangur

Donor
Spens1 said:
thats just herald sun/murdoch/victorian propaganda

Also for us, it would be a more niche sport, not like on that level, more like on the level that basketball is now.

Also agreed, tried to follow a game, its just way too boring and slow, and i watch test cricket.
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Mhh concerned mummies are a thing - God help me but I have a sister in law like that
 
Derek Pullem

Derek Pullem

Donor
Pangur said:
Leagues, fair enough however I dispute your 5% is way of the mark Pretty much every nation has a crack at making the world cup and that game is played in most parts of the world even if its kids playing with a rolled up rag and piles of stones to mark the goal mouths are
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LOL - I was making the distinction between "soccer" playing and "association football" playing!

I wasn't saying only 5% of the world played / knew about footbal.
 
Lenwe

Lenwe

You have more possibility making Basketball more popular than that is now, and has world sport go, basketball is insanely popular, there are 213 national Federations Associated to the FIBA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIBA) Two MORE than the Associated to the FIFA (211) his material requirement are lower than American Football, but more than FIFA futbol, and is a fast passed game to see, and his rules even being a little esoteric, can be learn in a day, something that you couldn´t say for the american Football
 

TonyA

Well, now...let me see...someone already said it, the popularity of soccer/football is tied in no small measure to the fact that it's cheap. In a poor, dismally unsatisfying world, "bread and circuses" are important, and soccer is the truly cheap seats on the circuit. So there's that. Then there's the other, the popularity of American football here in America. Have you ever watched a game? I agree with all the soccer fans about the comparative lack of action in the American version, but to the average American, soccer just looks like exercise, not sport. And to an American, that lack of action is the beauty of the sport...the break that allows all the would-be Sabans and Lombardis to point out why that last play worked, or didn't work and what they could have done different or better, and what they need to do next, or look out for...and, damn, it's time to call my bookie or get serious with that fantasy league, or both! You get the idea!
 
Black

Black

What if Rugby and Football early on maybe like 1900 had a conference and created a united league so that it is only one sport with international rules. This is not exactly what you are trying to accomplish but I think that might work, similar to how sports leagues have combined in the past blending rules of both but on a much larger scale. With international standard rules it is excessable and you can have national teams competing against each other.
 

Riain

Banned
Another thing about soccer and Aus footy is that skill is built for all positions by handling the ball by yourself or with one other person, which I'm not sure is true American footy and the Rugbys. A kid who does kick to kick with the neighbour or sibling, or even just kicking up in the air and catching it is getting the 10,000 hours needed to master something.

How many positions in American football are mastered mainly by ball handling?
 

Arkenfolm

You don't necessarily need a lot of equipment to play American football. Look at pictures of football players a century ago, most noticeable in the leather helmets. Equipment is a luxury, something you'd like to have but can't at the moment. And yes, you'll be hurting after you finish your game, but that didn't stop millions of people from playing football before modern equipment was available. Maybe you can have it so all those bruises, bloody noses, etc. make the game appear as a manly test of skills, which to a large degree is OTL hence the hyper-masculine imagery of American football.

TonyA said:
Well, now...let me see...someone already said it, the popularity of soccer/football is tied in no small measure to the fact that it's cheap. In a poor, dismally unsatisfying world, "bread and circuses" are important, and soccer is the truly cheap seats on the circuit. So there's that. Then there's the other, the popularity of American football here in America. Have you ever watched a game? I agree with all the soccer fans about the comparative lack of action in the American version, but to the average American, soccer just looks like exercise, not sport. And to an American, that lack of action is the beauty of the sport...the break that allows all the would-be Sabans and Lombardis to point out why that last play worked, or didn't work and what they could have done different or better, and what they need to do next, or look out for...and, damn, it's time to call my bookie or get serious with that fantasy league, or both! You get the idea!
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Maybe it has something to do with baseball, the other distinctively American sport, which also has a lack of action (and lots of commentation on the plays). But like baseball, it's always a great thing to have on in the background.

Creidiki said:
Maybe have a Euro-footie style relegation/promotion and cup system instead of closed league?
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Isn't that more of a North American problem than anything else? Although the problem is there isn't a second-tier league, especially since Arena football has declined massively in recent years. Outside of the NFL, you have college football for viewership and popularity, but you can't promote the best college teams like Alabama to the NFL for obvious reasons, although I'd love to see a game between the worst NFL team and the college football national champion (Cleveland Browns vs Alabama, anyone?).
 

Pete U

The other thing that soccer had over gridiron was a 70 year headstart, and a ready stream of emigrants, sailors and the like to take the game 'overseas' from the UK.

AC Milan were formed as a football and cricket club by two Englishmen. Juventus famously got their shirts from Notts County, for example.

There is also a (relative) lack of specialisation - if you can play outfield, you can (in theory) play any position with the same skill set. Only goalies have a real difference in what they do.

It also scales up and down readily - you can play a version from one a side to thirty a side easily, and it's fundamentally the same game.

I think you can make American Football more popular, but you need a fundamentally different world to make it as big as soccer
 

Ian_W

Banned
Black said:
What if Rugby and Football early on maybe like 1900 had a conference and created a united league so that it is only one sport with international rules. This is not exactly what you are trying to accomplish but I think that might work, similar to how sports leagues have combined in the past blending rules of both but on a much larger scale. With international standard rules it is excessable and you can have national teams competing against each other.
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You're going down the path that crippled rugby union and cricket - making representative play the peak.

When club sides play, you can have them playing a bunch of games of the same weekend, and because those games are more or less equal, people show up to watch them.

When you have representative teams as being the thing, then people go 'Oh, I'll wait for the good players to play'.
 

Ian_W

Banned
DocU said:
The other thing that soccer had over gridiron was a 70 year headstart, and a ready stream of emigrants, sailors and the like to take the game 'overseas' from the UK.

AC Milan were formed as a football and cricket club by two Englishmen. Juventus famously got their shirts from Notts County, for example.

There is also a (relative) lack of specialisation - if you can play outfield, you can (in theory) play any position with the same skill set. Only goalies have a real difference in what they do.

It also scales up and down readily - you can play a version from one a side to thirty a side easily, and it's fundamentally the same game.

I think you can make American Football more popular, but you need a fundamentally different world to make it as big as soccer
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Rugby league and American Football are about a quarter inch apart - to quote Jack Gibson, 'Same game, different rules' (*).

League has done ok in the English speaking world, and it did decently in France until the Nazis let the Vichy French steal League's assets to benefit Union.

The issue is broken time in a collision sport.

(*) Dear Americans, League has five downs to make the goal line, blocking is illegal, it's always a hurry-up offense unless a penalty happens and the forward pass is illegal. Feel free to make jokes about the Packers post-Rodgers.
 
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