Question

1. What do you think is the future of soccer around the globe and in the United States? Try to defend your position with hard numbers rather an emotional argument.

Answer 1

With 265 million active players, soccer is bound to have effects in societies at large. The game arouses passionate devotion in its fans and great riches for its players and team owners, with impacts that can uplift or disrupt lives and nations.

Soccer is the sport played most consistently around the world. It's not sectioned off or dominated by one particular country. There are 265 million players actively involved in soccer around the world. That is about 4 percent of the world's population. The world of international soccer is governed at the highest level by The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA). Membership of FIFA is now comprises of 211 national associations. Member countries must be the members of one of the six regional confederations into which the soccer world is divided.

          The popularity of soccer is increasing in the United States. Soccer in the United States is governed by different organizations. The United States Soccer Federation governs most levels of soccer in the country, including the national teams, professional leagues, and amateur leagues. The NCAA governs colleges and the National Federation of High Schools governs schools. The match regulations are generally the same between the three governing bodies although there are many subtle differences.

It is said that 7% of Americans cited soccer as their favorite sport to watch, while 9% of them preferred America’s pastime baseball. Soccer is not only growing as a whole in the United States, but Major League Soccer ( MLS ) has experienced a 27% rise in interest since 2012. As of 2006, over 24 million Americans play soccer. There are 4.2 million players (2.5 million male and 1.7 million female) registered with U.S. Soccer. As of 2012, thirty percent of American households contain someone playing soccer.

Increasing numbers of Americans, having played the game in their youth, are now avid spectators. The annual ESPN sports poll has shown soccer as the fourth most popular team sport in the United States every year. As of 2011, 8.2% of Americans rank soccer as their favorite sport. A 2012 Harris Interactive poll showed soccer to be the fifth favorite team sport, with 2% of Americans ranking soccer as their favorite. A 2011 ESPN sports poll ranked soccer as the second most popular sport in the country for 12- to 24-year-olds. In 2013, Lionel Messi became the first soccer player ever to rank among the Top 10 most popular athletes in the U.S. in an ESPN poll, although he was not listed in the Top 10 in a Harris poll. A 2017 poll by Gallup found that soccer is nearly as popular as baseball with 7% of Americans saying it is their favorite sport, as opposed to 9% for baseball.

Professional soccer at all levels is thriving in the United States and Canada and it is believed that there are many markets that could support a successful MLS club. The next step for American soccer is to be successful in the World Cup, They need to be able to explore again to get everybody really excited, seeing as many Americans have taken to it.

Another major contributor to soccer’s growth in the United States is the presence of foreign clubs, who are expanding their influence and brand through academies, international offices, digital content, preseason friendlies, participating in the International Champions Cup (ICC) and partnerships. Major clubs including FC Barcelona and Bayern Munich have offices in New York City, while LaLiga (Spain) and the Bundesliga (Germany) have an on-the-ground presence in the U.S.

Soccer in the U.S. definitely will continue to gain popularity.  There are entrepreneurs and cities willing to invest in new teams and markets. When consider the global soccer, the World Cup will be held in 2026 in the US, Mexico, and Canada. Matches will be hosted in almost every corner of the country and are certain to drum up excitement, with the U.S. getting an automatic bid and all. Soccer will continue to grow not only in the United States but in the rest of the world. The Women’s Soccer Team has done a lot for the sport. Winning the World Cup multiple years as well as the increasing coverage of soccer by the media has led to an increase of interest in soccer.

Soccer has some barriers to being a huge success in the U.S. But it has been gaining slowly over time and this trend very likely to continue into the future. All of these points lead to a future where soccer in the United States will increase not only in people playing the sport, watching the games, and enjoying the coverage, but may lead to it moving up the ranks in sport popularity in the near future.

“Hopefully soccer is going to be even bigger in the United States and around the world also.”