Football is the most popular sport in the world. It is known on all continents and countries without exception. Children and young people play it in almost every place, regardless of their social, cultural, or educational levels. However, surprisingly, this sport is not widespread in the USA! They do not even call it “football” like the rest of the world, but rather they call it “Soccer”, which is the uncommon name for this beautiful game. As for the name football, it is given to the game of “American football” with completely different rules.
The main reason behind the unpopularity of soccer in the United States is the local culture contains concepts that completely contradict football basics.
The United States has major football leagues and a national team that participates in regional and international tournaments but no one knows about it!
Likewise, sports bettors in the USA don’t place bets on football tournaments, rather they prefer American Football, Basketball, horse racing, Baseball.
On September 7th, ESPN published a survey that concluded that 36% more Americans will bet on the next season of NFL. On the other hand, they don’t have any motivation to bet on football and don’t know anything about fantasy football details! In this article, we will review the most important reasons behind the dislike of football in the United States!
1. Americans Are Not number 1
Americans are obsessed with being the best at everything! This country has strived to win all the wars it has fought (except for the Vietnam War!), to have the latest tech, provide the best products, dominate all industries and sciences! And actually, they dominate the world since the end of World War II.
The same idea applies to sports, the three most popular sports in the USA are American football, baseball, and basketball. The regional and world championships for these sports are limited to the United States only, which enhances their dominance. For example, the Super Bowl includes only American teams and! In basketball, the United States participated in 18 Olympic championships and won 15 gold medals. As for football, the United States did not have any footprint. The best participation in the World Cup was the first edition that took place in 1930, in which the United States ranked third.
In addition, the United States will not achieve any titles in the CONCACAF championships. Americans are always looking to excel so they don’t like football because they are not the best at it!
2. Obsession With Everything Big
The culture of the “large things” is completely dominating in Americans. For example, if you walk the American streets, you will see restaurants offer massive sandwiches, big cars, and even huge people’s bodies sizes. Therefore, it is only natural that this culture is apply to sports as well.
Football is one of the sports with the lowest scoring rate, the match may end without any goal being scored, and the maximum score maybe 3 or 4. Conversely, American football, basketball, and baseball see around 20-30 points per game.
3. Football Player’s Height
As mentioned earlier, USA culture values bulkiness. American football, basketball, and baseball players range in height from 1.85 to 2 metres. On the contrary, you can imagine that the best player in football history is Lionel Messi (1.69 m)! The tallest player in the 2018 World Cup was Belgian goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who reached 1.99 meters in height which is less than the average height of Basketballers!
4. Not suitable for advertising
Despite its huge fan base, football is not marketing-friendly for American fans! The main source of monetization from sports is displaying ads. However, the duration of a football match is 90 minutes with 15 minutes break between halves. Of course, these minutes will not be enough to show ads of different companies. Although sports teams may use ads inside the stadium, it will not be enough to achieve the desired hope. Exactly the contrary, basketball, football, and baseball offer plenty of ad breaks.
5. Footballers Fake Injuries
If we compare progressive American football with regular football, we will discover that football players can fake injuries. Americans don’t understand why football players exaggerate in showing pain from friction by rolling over the ground! The American culture praises extreme rough sports.
Conclusion
Americans have logical reasons to dislike football. Their culture praises the high scoring rating, players’ huge bodies, and violent collisions. Further to this, they aren’t the #1 on football! During the period between 1954 to 1986, the USA national team didn’t even been able to qualify for the world cup.