Soccer, or football as known to most of us is the most popular sport in the world. It is a simple game, but its hard to play simple. Although football seems to be like any other sport, but its not a mere game.
Football is a bond that brings the world together. Its how people from different parts of world becomes best pals after realizing that they support the same team.
Football is about teamwork. Play for the badge on the front of the shirt and they remember the name on the back. The glory, the pain, the practices, the long bus rides shared with the teammates. Its about how a team becomes family.
Football is passion. Have school the next day, but still watching late night matches. Its about the great feeling you have when all of your friends support the other team, and your team wins the match.
Football is practicing in rain. It is countless jerseys and pairs of studs. It is about the cheer you hear when you beat your rival team. Football is also about pain, grief, losing and breaking but its great cause its overcoming them. Football is not just a ball and two goalposts. Football is a way of living.
Whilst many sports tended to be ‘middle class’ or even ‘upper class’, football was invented and mainly played as a ‘working class’ sport. This not only gave it a huge potential audience but also helped ensure the rules were simple and easy to follow, as well as integrating the sport into the community. It is easy to watch, easy to take part in – everything is easy and accessible!
Because of its working class roots, football used to be an extremely cost-effective pastime to follow. In its early days the sport was entirely amateur, everyone knew someone who was in the team or involved in the community around it so the impetus was there to go and support your friends and family in their teams. Tickets were cheap, word got around and soon big attendances started to happen. The switch to professionalism ensured better promotion of the sport in the areas it was established as well as better facilities for spectators and better spectacle due to employing the better players. Attendances would rapidly rise from a few hundred to a few thousand to tens or even hundreds of thousands.