Particpation+and+Success+of+two+sports

International Sports

Examine the social, cultural, economic and political factors affecting participation and success in two major international sports.
Interpretation: Participation is defined by profile of those who are involve (or not involve) in the game, be it playing the same or watching it been played. Success would involve participation, but much more. The sport is deem successful if it proved to have significant social and economic impact.

Football []

Why football such a popular game Source: []
Football (or soccer) is ranked the most popular sport in the world. (Almost) every country boast football as one of the most if not themost popualr sport. 1. Its natural If you roll a ball towards a young toddler who has just learned to walk, its first instinct might be to try to pick it up, but in doing so it is quite likely to kick it instead. The youngster soon discovers that a kicked ball will go further than a ball propelled by hand, and it is in any case easier to control where it goes. When he or she starts wearing shoes, the action of kicking a ball becomes painless, and fun to do. The young child in the garden or the street will soon discover that kicking a ball towards a target is rewarding. You don't always hit the target, so it is good fun to practice until you develop the techniques that improve your success rate. You may only be young, but you have a "goal" to aim for!

2. Its social If you have a ball, your next discovery is that other kids want to kick your ball too. You can make marks on a wall, or put your coats down a few feet apart. One of you can stand in the way and try to stop the ball going between the coats or hitting the wall. It makes sense to let him use his hands for this job, but you need a rule that he is the only one. He can be the goalie, then. Kids therefore discover that they can make friends if they let other kids play with their ball, and they can make up any rules they like to suit their circumstances, such as where the edges of the playing area are, and whose turn it is to ask for the ball back when it goes over somebody's wall.

3. Its simple When people want a game to play, they just need a bit of ground to play it on, and have nothing more sophisticated in the way of equipment than something round. Even an old tin can will do until somebody treads on it, and then you can always get another. It is therefore played in the back streets of English towns, in the favelas of Brazilian cities and the dusty spaces between the huts in African villages. Football only requires a small piece of flat land and can be played in almost any climatic conditions. Even professional and international matches have been played in diverse climatic conditions from snow to tropical heat as well as from the lowlands of Melbourne to the mountains of Bolivia.

4. Its rewarding When an individual proves to be very good, they might even make a living at it and end up playing for a professional club and eventually a national team. Soccer therefore provides a way out of poverty for the most deprived of young people, and a real incentive to succeed. All you need is talent.

5. Its entertaining The rules of the game are also very simple: anyone can understand the basics in just a couple of minutes. There are very few interruptions to the game itself - the laws are simple and conducive to a flowing game in constant motion.

6. Its well-publicised With television, soccer is hugely popular with every race on the planet. What television as done is to market the excitement, the simplicity and the sense of involvement in spectators who have then gone on to become practitioners - the proverbial "snow-ball effect". Football fans create special magazine, which presents latest football news and events, such as transfers of the players, and of season, changing of managers and coaches et cetera. Publishers and editors of fanzines often receive no financial compensation; fanzines are often distributed free of charge or for nominal cost only.

7. It’s everybody’s game While some people are supposedly genetically suited to certain sports (distance runners and sprinters of African origin) individuals of diverse origin and size have excelled in football. From the pint size Lionel Messi to the gigantic Zlatan Ibrahimović, from Anglo-Saxons like Beckham to African Americans like Didier Drogba, football seems to not restricted by genetic predisposition. But football never took off in sports crazy USA and is not that high up on the list of sports crazy Australia as well. Why? Not so serious set of reasons []

**Very serious set of reasons from USA Today**
The soccer-won't-make-it crowd likes to lean on past and current social forces to buttress its argument: • Soccer has roots in Britain, which exported the game to its colonies some 150 years ago. Little surprise we just said no. "America was all about being independent from Great Britain, so soccer's inability to stick here really is a product of historical forces," says Randy Roberts, a historian at Purdue University. "It's also worth noting that the sports that gain popularity in any culture tend to have great appeal with the lower classes. That's true with soccer in the rest of the world and with sports like basketball here." • So long as soccer here remains the casual sport of middle-class suburbanites and their elementary school offspring, it won't penetrate our popular culture. "Soccer in America seems to be all about making kids and parents feel good, a place where it's OK to be so-so, as long as you're having fun," architect and part-time football coach Wong says. "Sports are a mirror of life, which can help kids realize where they fit in. Will you be the guy who can throw that game-winning touchdown pass or not? Soccer doesn't seem to promote that." • Our finest athletes don't gravitate toward the sport, eliminating the possibility of us ever seeing a Michael Jordan of soccer emerge from our shores. "Kids in this country may grow up playing soccer, but most seem to stop playing it fairly early in life because they lose interest," Deford says. "In the end, that proves that it's a game that's not to the taste of our top athletes." MLS' Garber disputes this, pointing to U.S. national team member Eddie Johnson, a fleet-footed African-American who initially played football and basketball at his Florida high school. "Don't tell me he's not a great athlete," Garber says. "And he chose soccer." As for soccer being inherently boring as compared to American staples such as baseball and football, Donovan, a Southern California native who plays for the Los Angeles Galaxy, says such talk "comes from an older generation of Americans, people who didn't grow up with it and find it hard to accept that it will be a big sport."
 * Almost had a toehold in the '70s**

Some argue that the case against soccer smacks of politics. "There's a strain of conservatism that I think is often tied to this anti-soccer lobby," says Franklin Foer, author of //How Soccer Explains the World: An Unlikely Theory of Globalization//. "It's not about (whether soccer is in our) DNA. It is about our history. Saying soccer will never be big here assumes American culture is static."
 * The political theory**

But all such parsing from pundits tends to belabor the obvious (soccer will never be as big as football and it is not commercial-TV-friendly) and ignore the indisputable (there must be reasons folks in the farthest reaches of the planet are enamored of this game). One powerful appeal of soccer is that victories on the pitch — especially national-team triumphs that resonate well beyond World Cup stadiums — amount to brief but shining moments in the sun for countries that, in geopolitical terms, don't enjoy such stature. Brazil is soccer's king, having won the World Cup five times; the country doesn't have commensurate clout at the United Nations. On a player level, success hinges less on specific size requirements — almost a given in basketball and football — and more on determination and desire. Argentina's retired hero, Diego Maradona, stood only 5-5, an elusive sprite with tree-trunk legs. One of today's top strikers, the Czech Republic's Jan Koller, towers over defenders at 6-7.

And maybe most significant of all, the pace of a soccer game speaks to cultures whose own dramatic histories span centuries if not millennia. Games are less pointed battles (pitcher vs. batter) and more two-act operas where getting up mid-dribble for a beer would be as unthinkable as going for a glass of wine mid-aria.

"Soccer is a great passion play for much of the world," says Paddy Agnew, a Rome-based correspondent for the //Irish Times// who is covering the World Cup in Germany. "The people I talk to are glad the world's only superpower isn't much better than it is. If they won this, too, that'd be the end. What could the rest of the world aspire to?" Agnew says the reasons the USA isn't as soccer-mad as the rest of the world "are purely cultural, and there's nothing wrong with that." Just as our tykes gravitate toward baseball, football and basketball, kids in Ireland are keen about Gaelic football and hurling, which has "as much to do with declaring our independence from England as anything else," he says. "Your sports are your identity.

But football or soccer is still the most successful sport in the world.
1. Low investment, high returns Acquiring the skills requires minimum income but getting a professional contract can make one a millionaire. FIFA estimated that there are about 270 million registered players (check this out: []). Assuming 10% are gainfully employed, that means at least 27 million depending on football for a living, and this still did not include all the support staff including referees. With players from some of the poorest parts of the world earning millions and playing at the highest level, many LEDCs are naturally able to do well in international tournaments without actually having to work with a large budget. E.g. Côte d'Ivoire is ranked about 13 in world by FIFA but 96 on the World Bank GDP ranking. Its team made up of world class millionaire players plying their trade in professional leagues in Europe.

2. Low cost infrastructure Decent football pitches are cheap to set up and cheap to maintain. World standard infrastructure are required for training for the elite athletics but having a large number of easily accessible facilities will allow the build-up of a critical mass of potential national representatives. Sport schools and academies are also critical to help start the athletics at a young age Population size not a constraint Countries with small population have done well in the sport. Tiny Netherlands with a population of only 16 million is consistently ranked among the very best in the world despite the large number of countries participating in competitive football. Ironically, countries like China and India have not fared well in international football.

3. Global Cultural The huge popularity of football and football icons means that the game has become a common language for many people. The widespread counterfeiting of Manchester United jerseys which are worn by people of all income classes reflects how football is seen has non- cultural. Football has helped bring people together ([]). Football is a common ice breaker especially among men of all countries and religion.

4. Interest of the mass media Football is probably the sport with the highest media coverage in the world According to FIFA, Almost half the world tuned in at home to watch 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa ( []). Football is excellent in promoting itself through mass media and endorsements, creating the interest which in turn attracts more financial support and participation. David Beckham and Manchester United are probably the most well-known names in the world

5. Hosting Major Events Though hosting a major football event can be very costly, it has also proven to generate significant political capital by making the government very popular. Participating and winning major event has help governments to divert public attention away from real social and economic problems

6. Role Models While David Beckham is a very good footballer, he is certainly a much greater example of one who has gain significant wealth from football through endorsements and ambassador roles. Great footballers like Pele and Messi has inspired youths and gave a sense of hope to whole nations

7. Government involvement Many governments have seen the social economic and political benefits of football, and hence have invested on programmes to select potential athletics at a very young age and placing them in special schools. In other cases, government played an attractive role by either direct financing or linking athletics with sponsors, foreign clubs and federations, and finally financing the hoisting of competitions.

8. National Pride Football has become the national pride at different levels. Some sports are national symbols and incarnate the national spirit. Success or failures in the sport often have implications on the popularity of the national government.