I'd rather be on BS than watch the American Football final.

I'll agree with you, in part. The Russian Superleague has a number of good teams, but they certainly aren't at the heydays back during the Soviet era when Russian hockey players weren't allowed to go to the NHL. Japanese baseball is basically a 4A league, better than AAA teams, but not quite as good as MLB teams and is becoming even more so as their best players leave for MLB teams. If RSL and NPB teams played in the the corresponding North American league, they'd certainly be competitive, in that they would win a few games and make them interesting, but they'd still be basement dwellers.

As for basketball, I don't think your "evidence" of the national teams is very good evidence. We aren't comparing the individual players, but rather the leagues in those countries. One of the common things you'll see in the national teams that perform well against the US national team is that their best players play on NBA teams. If a team from that country's league were to play against an NBA team, they'd get creamed.

 

In my experience, people don't like soccer because they find it boring, and because of the divers, and because of a perceived threat due to immigration. These people are entitled to their opinions, but I think they are wrong as well.

There have been far more times that a fan of another sport has stated something derogatory about soccer and its fans, than the other way around.
I don't have enough fingers to count the times I've heard derogatory statements about soccer, the fans sexuality, and the rest, from fans of every other sport in America. I've also never seen a soccer fan decide to hate American sports because of it. Of course, its big soccer, so it apparently happens.

I've never heard a single American sports fan not openly mock and laugh at a Eurosnob soccer fan, whether American hipster, or foreigner. They didn't like the sport before the person showed up to babble about Soccer being superior, not because of their remarks. These Europeans sports fans are a super minority in America's sporting landscape, not the other way around. It might not seem like it because of places like Bigsoccer, but in vast areas of America, that's just how it is.

People want to find the reason the sport isn't popular, and pointing to a small group of people that most Americans will never meet or see isn't the answer.

Professional soccer isn't even on the radar for a vast majority of sports fans in America. We're extrmely lucky our niche sport is growing and being catered too, to be honest. Even if most Americans were confronted by a Eurosnob dingalings, most of them will go back to what we do best- ignore Soccer.

 

Mexico has a college league, Japan has a professional league, and England used to have an amateur league, but it went belly up.

 

Do any of them play NFL rules? The game changes significantly with just some minor rule changes. Look at college vs. pros, not to mention the big difference between NFL and CFL rule sets.

 

Apparently, not many. This year's Super Bowl had the most viewers in U.S. television history.

Whether or not the rest of the world watches the Super Bowl is irrelevant to the NFL's success just as whether or not the rest of the world loves soccer is irrelevant to the success of MLS.

 

It is relevant. TV has no country boundary and probably the biggest source of revenue. That's why World Cup and UECL get more TV viewers. Super Bowl is limited to the population of US (assuming it's not going to be globalized any time soon).

I suspect Barcelona vs Real Madrid gets more viewers than Super Bowl.

US and Chinese citizens(and many other countries) loves of soccer is relevant to the success of teams/leagues such as EPL, LaLiga, ManU, Barcelona, etc.

 

I always think the ratings should be higher even with them breaking records, but, then again, I do know plenty of people that don't watch the Super Bowl, if you can believe that.

Some people just don't like sports, as weird as that is. But, its the Super Bowl, the biggest most hyped sporting event in our country, you'd think they would at least tune in and watch a few minutes.

 

They all use American football rules, which generally means a blend of the pro and college rules with some minor changes. The most significant change in Japan is that they have a 12 minute quarter instead of 15. I wouldn't say the changes are significant enough to make them an entirely different code like Canadian football and Australian rules football are.

 

I think Australian rules football falls into rugby category.

 

Actually, last year was the first year that the UEFA championship game got higher global ratings than the Super Bowl.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/8490351.stm

 

Better not let a Australian rules football fan hear you say that.

 

Australian Rules is its own beast. It is a football code, but not a rugby code.

 

Americans have spent trillions and trillions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of live on wars, weapons and military for the right to call sh*t whatever the h*ll they feel like without worrying two cr*ps about what anyone in other countries say about it.

When you have military bases in 150 countries that kind of allows you to call your teams "world champions" without too many recriminations, no?

 

What's football code? the one from FIFA?

It looks a lot more like rugby than american-football.

 

This was actually the 2009 CL final vs the January 2009 Super Bowl. I'd be interested to see if that was a one-year phenomena or continued to the 2010final as well.

On one hand, the CL final was moved to a weekend date from a Wednesday night which you'd think would boost viewership.

On the other hand, the 2009 final was a perfect storm of global appeal with Barca vs Manchester United. Would Inter and Bayern draw a similarly large audience?

 

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=football+codes

You are aware that FIFA is not the governing body for all Football codes, right? It's just the organization for Association Football, which is one of the many football codes.

 

Hmm.. One of these days I'll realize that it is 2011 and not 2010.

 

Uh... that is what I was asking. Rgby is a kind of 'football' = rugby football.
So it has a football code?

Check out the posting that I was replying to.

 

oh.. you like/dislike another sport! we must be enemies!!!!

So many idiots out there. I wouldn't have the patience to do this.

 

They all are a football code, but australian rules is not a form of rugby any more than American football is a form of rugby. They both share origins in rugby, but they have been codified into their own separate sports.

 

A "code" is basically a set of rules someone writes down.

Back in the nineteenth century, people all over the British empire and former empire were playing games called "football." Most of them had a few things in common; you scored by getting a ball over the end line, and at various times you were allowed to kick the ball forwards. Other than that, the rules were very different, but it didn't matter, because you were playing the same group of teams you always played. Often team captains would negotiate the rules at the start of the game.

Once people started forming leagues, the leagues needed a uniform set of rules. The FA were one of the first to write a set down and become the oldest "code" (although the game didn't look exactly like modern soccer--for instance, any player was allowed to catch the ball, which entitled them to a free kick). The Rugby school, who thought the FA game sucked because you couldn't kick your opponent in the shins or run with the ball, wrote another code down pretty much right away.

In America, Canada, and Australia, they didn't care much what the English leagues were doing, so when they got around to writing up "codes" they used the variations that were common in those countries, which had been developing there for centuries.

So soccer, Australian Rules, NFL, CFL, Rugby league, Rugby union, and Gaelic football all evolved from the same game, which didn't look much like any of them (the closest modern game is probably "capture the flag"). It's just a matter of which parts of the game the people writing down the rules thought were important.

 

I clearly must give more people reputation... Must spread. *sigh*

 

again I was just pointing out rugby is also a type of 'football'.