Why has Soccer become such an euphoria for people worldwide?

I really cannot relate I don’t know anyone who watches soccer. Most people I know like American football or baseball. Could be because we grew up playing them. Until last year I played semi pro football. So that could be a reason. We love rugby too. I have noticed that a lot of kids are playing on soccer teams. So I think it will become alot bigger in the U.S. as they become adults.

I live in the UK where the whole social calender seems to revolve around this mysterious Football (or, as you gentlemen refer to it, ‘Soccer’).
It is seen as being a thrilling sport, alot of excitement is built around it and, in this country, alot of money is ploughed into it.

Personally, not my cup of tea, but I don’t condemn them that love it :-)

I don’t know anyone who follows soccer. I don’t know anyone who has played it beyond middle school. I live in the US, it is definitely not a big deal here.

Football (soccer) is a sport a lot of kids grow up with over here (Europe). It is easy to understand the rules and all you need to play it is ball, or at least something you can kick around. You can play it on a field or just on the street. That is how a lot of kids start out. I think the simplicity of the game has had an influence on its popularity.

Apparently one of the reasons soccer isn’t so popular in America was that it was considered a working class sport, one Senator in particular took exception to the growing popularity of Soccer after the war and went to some lengths to promote Football and stifle soccer, presumably as a result of the anti communist paranoia or to foster a sense of nationalism. If you notice America doesn’t really take globally popular team sports very seriously, which is a shame because America could contribute a huge amount to games such as Soccer and Rugby, but America seems to thrive on insular sporting events like the Superbowl, that’s fine and dandy, but it isn’t quite the same as having your country in a world cup final is it?

Having said that, the Soccer mum phenomena has re-evaluated soccer as an acceptable middle class activity, this may pave the way to more interest and acceptability of soccer, but the roots of soccer are working class, it is a simple game, that shouldn’t really need the rigmarole of a college scholarship in order to train and compete.

It’s not so expensive equipment like American football or ice hockey.

Most people in the world have played it at some point, if not professionally. You get a ball and some people together and play. Easy.

I was a left-wing striker in high school, and it’s funny to me that it was seen as a working class sport in the US back in the day; people who played soccer at my US high school were seen as the richie-rich, stuck-up kids.

Soccer is a highly skilled sport which simply hasn’t yet caught on in the US. Why do the fans go nuts and kill each other?
Why do they not kill each other at US sporting events like hockey, football, baseball and basketball…
It appears that fans of soccer in other parts of the world are simply criminally insane.
And perhaps Americans don’t have the need to kill one another because we can just join the army and kill people all over the world and get paid for it.

@aprilsimnel that has been my impression too. The Ritchie Rich kids from the private schools played soccer.

@Doctor_D Out of curiosity, do you have a native language other than English? You don’t state where you live on your profile.

Yes, Bahasa Melayu(Indonesian),English(still working on it),Chinese,and Mandarin. Mom from Chinese tribe and dad from Mandarin tribe. Many people ask this similar question and I’m not very fond of repetition.I live in Indonesia. Why you ask?(please don’t tell me it because of the way I use my grammar). I don’t feel like to write my biography in my profile and I don’t think it’s necessary.

universal appeal
international appeal
comes from community sport so community embraces it.

@Doctor_D Thanks for answering. Yes, it was because you sound like English is not your native language.

Football, a sport for gentlemen, played by thugs.
Rugby, a sport for thugs, played by gentlemen.
I cant work out why football is so popular, bores the hell outta me.