Why is soccer so Popuplar and How does soccer affect the lives of people around the world?

Sekou Jabateh Oliseh, Liberian soccer player describes his early experiences with soccer:
Looking back on where I came from and where I thought I was going I didnt think life
was worth fighting for. I was disgruntled and depressed from all the constant conflict and
tension that was going on all around me. At my job as a technician for the local
telecommunications company I barely made enough money for my grandmother and I to
eat then again for me to even dream about saving. The only comfort I could find was
when I made the two and a half mile run to an abandoned cocoa farm that my friends and
I had made into a soccer field. ... To people walking by and others much better off
than we were it was a 50x60 ft. plot of land with a mound of dirt in the middle but to us it
was better than Wembley Stadium.
There are over 50 different Olympic sports; some 18 of them have their very own
associations. The top five are known of by about 56% of the planet, but only one sport has total
world domination with a striking 92% knowing of the sport. Soccer, futbol, football, fussball,
and futebol, are just a few of the many names soccer has around the world, but how does it affect
the lives of the people it touches? Why are so many people so accepting of it around the world?
Why is it not as big in the US?
The root of soccers wide spread popularity is mainly because of how inexpensive and
easy it is to learn how to play. The cost to fully equip a twelve year old playing Pop-Warner
American football with the most basic stuff can range anywhere from $200 to $1000 at Dicks
Sporting Good. The cost of a catchers outfit at the same store for a high-school player is $600.
Most of the worlds households do not even make $150 in US currency in a month; therefore the
thought of playing a sport that costs a whole years salary doesnt cross their mind.
Almost two/thirds of the world is plunged into poverty and dire living conditions that
many of us cant even think of living in. For example, in a place like Liberia, many turn to crime
because they believe that there is just no other way to survive, some try their best at earning
honest livings such as farming, fishing and trading, while others, the more privileged ones, get to
go to school and possibly try to get a more professional job, they all can come together under the
same roof and have deep and long conversations about soccer. People actually find relief from
the daily hassle of life by paying attention to soccer and being passionate about it. On occasion
some individuals actually make bets about the various games that were about to be played on that
day. This is another way to get cash and enjoy yourself at the same time. Watching the games is
not the only purpose soccer serves for the people of Liberia.
Another reason soccer is so popular around the world is because of its simplicity and lack
of extremely complex jargon. I learned how to play soccer simply by imitating what I saw the
older kids doing. Many kids across the world learn in a very similar manner, giving them some
form of guidance of what to do and what not to do while playing the sport. The kids get to learn
their strengths and easily pick their positions being that soccer only has eleven compared to
footballs twenty-two (NFL.com). The kids and coaches also have to deal with constant calls for
illegal formation and remember the different plays that are ran by the team. The process of going
on to learn the rules is fairly easy and would take about five minutes to fully understand. The
more beautiful part is that the rules tend to be very consistent over the years, whereas a sport
such as football averages 4 rule changes every one and half seasons amounting to over 70 rule
changes by the turn of the century and a whopping total of 102 in its 92 existence (NFL.com).
These rules ranged from player safety to what the coaches are allowed to do and what manner
the management can conduct the team in. Soccer on the other hand has only made eight edits to
the original 17 laws that were put down 150 years ago (FIFA.com). The fact that soccer doesnt
come with the headache of timeouts backs up soccers simplicity. Timeouts bring a whole new
different set of rules to the table depending on the sport. For instance, in the NBA each team is
awarded six timeouts during the course of a half; four of these timeouts are mandatory for
commercial purposes and they each last at least a minute, the other two are twenty second
timeouts that coaches can use to get a short point across to their players. Football on the other
hand has three timeouts in each half that dont roll over and have a whole bunch of different
rules such as when they can use the timeouts and how often the timeouts can be. These timeouts
are momentum killers and anyone that has sat through the last five minutes of a basketball game
way too many.
Once the basics are learned properly and the basic rules are understood, its all instinct
from there. Coaches can help affect your soccer IQ and attempt to make you better at your
specific position and influence the teams mindset whether, it be that they play defensively the
whole ninety minutes or attack as much as possible, but what they cannot do is dictate what the
team is going to do, or what decisions the players are going to make. The fact that soccer, for the
most part, does not run specific plays, makes the game a whole lot more beautiful because the
unpredictability that looms over every single fan player and coach as the ball is in play.
Therefore being able to play soccer depends heavily on your ability to make decisions and be
composed while doing so.
Soccer also has huge physical benefits that come along with playing it. Nine out of ten
people that play, at least semi-pro, soccer have a Body Mass Index (BMI) that is in an extremely
healthy range (livestrong.com). A sport such as football mainly focuses on getting the maximum
force out of you which means mainly working the upper body and quads, while basketball
focuses on verticals and stamina. Soccer forces you to use almost every muscle in your body
while building stamina, speed, force, and agility, resulting in a well-balanced individual that is
not too lean but not too bulky either. The other popular sports such as basketball, football, and
baseball that come along with quarters, periods, and innings thus never really putting a players
stamina to the test and giving them a run for their money. Soccer also comes with less risk of
injury which makes it a lot more enticing to parents and the players themselves. In the 2013 NFL
season there were 485 injuries that caused players to miss at least two days of practice and 69
that ended a players season (CBSSports.com). There are on average two players out for the rest
of the season on each NBA team roster (ESPN), while there are three injured players on average
in the MLB (CBSSports). In the English Premier League there were a total of 38 injuries as of
April 12 and only four were season ending (ESPN FC). The low amount of devastating injuries
is not because it is not manly enough but is due in part to the manner in which the game is
played and the culture of which it is built upon.
The actual game play of soccer can be compared to no other sport in beauty and fluidity.
Whether it is a screamer (a long distance shot on goal) from the halfway line, or a well worked
team effort that took ten minutes to put past the goal keeper, soccer has been described as
nothing short of beautiful. Soccer is the only sport in which, whether the country is rich or poor,
the playing field is level. The body size of a player very rarely matters in soccer either. The
unpredictability of an outcome adds to the beauty and has no match in the sporting world. One
minute a team can be up three zero the next minute they are down four goals to three. Other
things that make the game play of soccer so fun to sit through are the lack of timeouts, periods,
play challenges, play reviews that make a game drag on for hours longer than its supposed to be.
During game play of these other sports you can stop the clock for any reason they so choose. In
basketball the clock stops after a made basket, foul, timeout, a play review, out of bounds or
during free throws. In football, the clock stops after an incomplete pass, timeout, foul, running
out of bounds, turnover on downs, or after a team scores. In soccer on the other hand, the clock is
either your friend or your foe; it only stops when it is halftime or the game is over. A winning
team player can only do so much to waste time out of the 90 minutes but the referee still has the
power to add as much time as he sees fit. Soccer is by far the easiest sport to follow and
continuously pay attention to, because the average fan always bears in the back of their mind that
anything can happen within the blink of an eye. This brings me to my next point of how
passionate fans can be about this sport and how it affects their lives.

Countries all over the world have a deep love for soccer for a variety of reasons but none
for the same reason as my case study, Liberia. I lived in Liberia for the better part of my growing
up years and learned a lot about soccer there. Playing soccer is like a rite of passage for people in
Liberia, meaning that from a very young age soccer is fed to these kids every single day whether
it be intentionally or unintentionally...At a young age kids are given nicknames according to the
professional the older kids think their style of play resembles. The kids that are naturally gifted
and excel tend to be superstars in their various neighborhoods and are held to a high degree of
respect among the youth and even adults. The more under average kids took to hard work to
better themselves or just tried their best at earning respect another way. Every kid that I came in
contact with while I was in Liberia has the dream or has had the dream of making it into the big
leagues and coming back to make a better life for themselves and their parents. So many of them
were amazing athletes and players but the amount of adversity they have to overcome would be
deterring to any individual. For example George Weah a family friend has told me his story on
multiple occasions but I had to go deeper to fully understand.
In the early years of the civil conflict in Liberia, the soccer star George Weah discovered
that his exceptional soccer skills could provide an unexpected and liberating escape from the
atrocities that had befallen the wonderful land of Liberia. At a young age people in his
neighborhood of Clara Town, Monrovia noticed his abilities and put him on a pedestal as the
gem of the community. Weah soon took on the local mantle of The King and, while his playing
skills were eye-catching to his many admirers, his personality made him even more of a young
icon. .Born in October 1966 in Monrovias Clara Town slums to the Kru ethnic group, which
originated from Grand Kru County (one of the poorest regions in Liberia), Weah was the fourth
e of nine children and experienced great poverty even by Liberian standards. Surviving on barely
two meals a day and going to school in a flawed educational, Weah could only find a reliable
comfort when he was on the field. Weah was eventually to achieve what millions of aspiring
African youngsters sought, both then and now a lucrative contract with a famous European
football club. AS Monaco manager Arsene Wenger bought Weah for 20,000 dollars.
Weah escaped just before he would have been caught up in the murderous chaos of the
Doe years. In the global financial haven of Monaco, Weah won the French Cup in 1991, scoring
47 goals in 103 appearances in four seasons (19881992) and proving himself a world-class
player. In his first season he won his most prized accolade of FIFA World Footballer of the Year
(the first African-born player to do so), as well as the African Player of the Year. Who would
have thought that a young boy from such humble beginnings would go on to accomplish such
greatness. He later became a light of hope for his countrymen and would do so much in his
power to help his people at home. He even decided to run for president believing he knew what
the people wanted and how to give them the light. Since then, so many African soccer players
have followed in his footsteps and tried their best to develop their various countries (Armstrong
234).
It is not only in Africa that soccer gives the poor people a sense of a better life and
security. Ravaged with drugs and ruthless gangs, Many people in South America have no
certainty of what tomorrow will bring or whether they are even going to see tomorrow. Parents
cant always be there for their children because of them always trying to provide for the whole
family. The children become exposed to the struggle their parents are going through and have
their own way of attempting to solve this problem. Children in South America all have had a
similar dream of possibly becoming the breadwinner of their family through their soccer skills.
Dreaming one day that they could playing professionally and their family and friends could be at
home watching them on cable with the biggest smiles on their faces. But thinking of instability
of their lives leads some kids to trying to solve the problem now. Some join gangs and further
hinder their path to success, while some join the workforce at a young age but always keep in the
back of their mind their dream. These dreams can be sparked by the simple thought of their
current condition and what a professional contract could do for their family. Pro Chilean soccer
player Alexis Sanchez had this to say about his former situation, I used to wash cars for such
little money so I had enough money to buy my football boots. My family was so poor that
football for me was about survival, I told my mother from a young age, Dont worry, I will
become a football player and get us out of this situation. If I had failed I would be working 15-
hour days on construction sites and still not be earning enough to live. Football saved me. Such
faith and dedication is a luxury and risk not many children or their parents could take while
trying to put food on their tables. Supporting a childs soccer dream can be seen as taking away
funds and time from feeding the family or it could be seen as a wise investment into the future of
the family. Factors such as family size, family priorities and financial situation can all affect the
possible family support of the aspiring athlete. Sometimes these investments do pay off and
sometimes they dont.

In my experience, the ones from poorer families rarely make it to the top but when they
do, they do not disappoint. They know what it feels like to struggle and not have any certainty in
life, therefore they rarely ever forget where they came from and the sacrifices that family
members made to get them to the point of success. During my Inquiry process I interviewed one
of my brothers close friends Sekou Jabateh who plays for the national team of Liberia and in
Greece for Paok FC. I asked him what sacrifices did he have make to get to his level. He said and
I quote,
I wasnt the one making the sacrifices. All I had to do was do well in front of whomever
my uncle wanted me to impress and hope we get a call. My family, my friends they were
the ones doing the sacrificing. My uncle took time off work just to tend to me and make
connections, a boy that only knew how to play football. My mother would go to the
mosque to pray for me at least twice a day and worry herself to sleep every night. My
siblings would try their best to protect me from any harm. My friends, who were in my
opinion much better players, would give up their playing time for me just because they
saw the efforts that my family put behind me. All I could do was being grateful and pray
that their efforts were rewarded. That is why I have vowed to pay the bills for everyone in
my neighborhood and build football facilities within my town. I play football because I
love it but I give my all for the people I left behind.
Sekou got adopted by Nigerian superstar and has since been playing soccer at the highest levels
across Europe, all because he worked hard to stay at his level and he understood sacrifice what it
meant to be poor. My brother, who played alongside Sekou when they were younger and on the
Under 23 National Team of Liberia, is a totally different story. We come from a family that
didnt have to struggle or worry about the next meal, therefore, we took so much for granted and
never really had to try at anything. We were a little above average at the two main sports we
played. My brother was always better than me at soccer and he was the more charismatic of the
two of us. Although, being five years older than me, we basically shared the same friend group,
interests, and competitive attitude. My mother, being a prominent woman in society, saw how
good he was and pulled a few strings to get him a trial with a top team in Liberia. He got on the
team without a hitch and was fairly decent but he was never really set apart from the group. In
his mind he never really thought he had to work hard to get anything, therefore he never really
excelled the way Sekou did.
Through all of my research I could only come up with two reasons why soccer is not as
popular in the United Sates. First of the United States is the world super power and is home to
the business capital of the world. Everything that happens in America has to do with some form
of commercialization, whether it is by putting in advertisements on bus or weird product
placements in movies or TV shows. The most infamous form of them all is commercializing
sports games. Advertisement companies in America make billions of dollars off of these sporting
events by strategically plugging in the ad during timeouts. In basketball, each team has to use at
least two of their six timeouts each half strictly because of ads. In football there is no need for
mandatory timeouts because of all the extended stoppages that happen during the game. This
multi-billion dollar industrys hunger cannot be satisfied by the one halftime that soccer has a
game. Therefore, soccer is not commercialized to the general public as much as the other big
sports in America. Another reason why soccer isnt as big in America is because many consider
it not manly enough and boring. It is considered not manly enough because of the culture here
that pushes athletes to play through injuries and take hits constantly. This is why many possibly
great players never get to fully prove how great they can be because of career ending injuries.
Soccer is considered boring because it is often low scoring and there isnt a possibility of a fight
breaking out every game. I found out the average person in America just does not have the
patience to wait for a goal to happen or the understanding of the work put into scoring a goal.
That is why when a goal does happen, actual soccer fans understand how sweet of a gift it is to
see with your own eyes.
Soccer may mean many things to many people, to some soccer may be salvation, to
others soccer may be just a sport for their recreation, to others it could mean absolutely nothing,
but to me soccer is life. I have always loved soccer and I know I always will but after writing this
paper I learned a lot about soccer in ways I had never even thought of before. My research for
this paper gave me insight on a question that I had never really decided to do on my own but if I
had known that I would have gotten this much experience from it I would have done it a long
time ago. I now realize that soccer serves as a symbol of hope for so many and that its popularity
is due to the unity, the passion and the culture that solely comes along with the passion. Soccer is
the unifying force of the world and no other sport will ever be able to take it away from it.



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