The magic of football. Why is football the most popular sport in the world?

Photo by Fancy Crave on Unsplash

For the last one month everybody has been talking about football. The World Championship was literally everywhere – on the news (TV and radio), in the papers, I was seeing waving flags and cheap stickers in the supermarkets, on people's balconies, on the soda bottles, people were wearing their country's team T-shirts... Everybody was talking about the results, the score, wondering about the possible winners and losers, the unexpected surprises, the teams that were meant to win, but quickly went back home. The world was different. Everything everywhere was about football. It is crazy! Only in France for the last one month the news were all about the championship. Like everything else had stopped to exist – no more Donal Trump, no more China, no more refuges... only football.

I am not a huge football fan. I only watch the big championships and try to know what is currently going on just for the sake of general knowledge. So, keep in mind that this is an article written by a girl who is not so much into football, but however is very interested in understanding its “magic”. Let's be honest – there is some sort of magic in this game, some sort of craziness that makes people forget about the rest. They become different when their favorite football team plays – they become extremely overwhelmed, inpatient, joyful or even violent and aggressive sometimes (we all have seen these crazy people fighting, screaming and throwing things after a football game). So, football could be completely transformational for people.

So, for the last month I was seeing everybody so happy, so enthusiastic, so preoccupied, so wondering and inpatient (maybe living in France was also a reason for that) like winning the championship was a question of life or death. It is incredible how football is really capable to bring people closer to each other, not only friends, but a whole nation! I was seeing this and I was thinking – but why? What is the secret of football's world wide success? What is this thing about it that makes people become so different – more sociable and happier? During every big championship we have this strange feeling like the world is changing.

As I said, I am not an expert at all, but I really think this is maybe the most popular sport in the world. If you don't know, football finds its origins in 1863 in England when the Football Association was formed. This is the official birthday of football, but however, this game had existed many years before that. The first form of it was an exercise from a military manual from the second and third centuries BC in China. (https://www.fifa.com/about-fifa/who-we-are/the-game/index.html) If you travel a lot (check my articles on traveling : The lessons I learned form traveling and living abroad. Part 1 and Part 2), you will notice that in many countries, especially “poor” ones, people will play football on the street all day long... this is their only entertainment.

So, football is a very old game that has been existed literally forever. I am pretty sure that there is a reason for that and for its huge impact on people, so I decided to think about it a little bit more and here I come with some ideas that I personally think make football the most popular game in the world.

It is easy to play.

Football is an easy to play game. There are not many rules and those that exist are not very complicated. It is a pretty simple game. Everybody can understand the rules and put them in practice. Also, you don't need lots of supplies – just a ball. This makes football an extremely easy to play. However, not everybody can be a good football player!

You can play it everywhere.

If you have a ball, you have everything that you need to play football. You can play it everywhere – in a park, in your backyard, on the street. You don't need necessarily a big field, you can even play it indoors.

It is not expensive.

Again – if you have a ball, you have everything you need. Football is an extremely cheap game. You don't need expensive equipment. Even if you don't have the best ball in the world, you can still play. This makes the game affordable for everybody! You don't need to be rich and spend a lot of money to play football.

It is a team game.

Football is all about the team. It develops a team spirit. You don't need to be always 11 to play football. You can play 2 vs 2 for example, but you need a teammate. This brings people closer. They have the same goal – to win the game. This means that they have to communicate well and to always think of the others during the game. You can not play football alone, it is not a game for individualists – it is a team game. That makes it also a great hobby for some people who want to spend some fun time with theirs friends.

You can also check : What is the key to successful teamwork?

You never know what is going to happen.

We all like the unknown and the mystery even if it scares us. There is no fun in knowing the future. This is also what makes every game exciting. You don't know what is going to happen and who is going to win. Everything is possible! This is why during the football games we always feel this tension and focus of the audience. They don't want to miss anything because everything could change within a minute or even a second. It is a very dynamic and fast game. Never talk to your man while watching a football game!

It connects people from different generations and cultures.

Everybody can watch and play football no matter their age or nationality. This is a game that brings people closer. When there is a football game on the TV, we invite friends over or we can watch it with our family (our parents, children, spouse). It becomes a festive moment between people who like spending time together. It is like watching a movie together.

Also, during the World Championship it is amazing how football is capable to reunite people from one country. People sing, dance, cheer up their team, drink and have fun all together like a real nation. If we could only be one people more often than every 2 or 4 years because of football...

The media impact is huge.

Even if football is a very cheap and easy to play game by everyone which makes it extremely popular, the media impact is huge. We can watch games on TV, we can even listen to them on the radio stations, we see posters with football players on the streets, in the metro. We don't have to forget that football players have nowadays a big place in the fashion industry as well. Everybody wants to look like them, to have theirs hairstyles, theirs body structures... Many of them are models for big fashion brands. This is another way to advertise football – TV, news, magazines, street posters, soda bottles and so much more. Ronaldo's face is everywhere!

Football is a huge business.

Let's not forget about the business perspective of football. This is a huge business nowadays. It is not anymore only about the fun of playing with a ball, it is also about money. As football is one of the most popular games in the world, it is also an amazing way to make big money out of it through advertising, football players' transfers, investments, sponsors etc. Where there is a big audience, there is also big money!

What can we learn from football?

I don't know if football is the most popular game in the world, but certainly is one of them. This is a game that brings people closer, make them have fun and encourages them to support their favorite team or their own country. There is something magical in listening the national anthem when your country won. Everybody is proud. During the big championships the people of one country become again one nation. They are enthusiastic, joyful, happy, they kiss and hug each other on the streets even if they are strangers, only because their team/country won, they forget for a while about the daily problems and stop criticizing their country for a moment. They become again proud to be French, English, Colombian, Algerian, South African or whatever nationality. Why do we do this only during football championships? Why don't we use this enthusiasm in our daily life?

Football is also a game that gives the opportunity for people from all over the world to work together. We can see in only one team people from different countries, with different origins, who speak different languages. It is not important where you come from or what your skin color is. What is important is if you know how to play well with the ball. Football creates a multicultural environment of acceptance.

In the end, the World Championship is now over, but we can still try to be more often proud of our origins, of the place we come from no matter if our country won or lost the football game. Let's not forget to have fun and spend quality time with our friends and family. Let's be happy and open to meet new people and to be kind to them even if we just met. Let's try to find some small daily pleasures, cherish them and not forget that everything is temporary and we have to appreciate every single moment of our precious life. To live it to the fullest, to be present in the moment, to expect the unexpected, to be more spontaneous and authentic and to stay positive no matter what is going to come. Sometimes we are going to win, sometimes we are going to lose, but after all, everything is going to be fine. Love, Elena