WI: no basketball

Soccer (what the rest of the world calls football) might be the big thing in American inner cities, as like basketball it requires very little equipment.

I'm not sure about this. American football is extremely popular in inner-city U.S. neighborhoods and requires a ton of equipment. That equipment is supplied by the schools whose teams they play for. I don't think the popularity (or lack thereof) of any particular sport comes down to the amount of equipment needed, at least not in any Western country. Most sports have modified forms that you can play (like touch football) that get around that problem. The popularity of a sport comes down to cultural factors. Soccer just has never really caught on among inner-city Americans. Maybe it would have without basketball, but I'm not sure.

Also - just a pet peeve - it's not true that the rest of the world calls it "football." Much of the English-speaking world (including Canada, Australia and New Zealand) calls the sport "soccer," as do French Canadians. And Italians call it calcio.
 
Also - just a pet peeve - it's not true that the rest of the world calls it "football." Much of the English-speaking world (including Canada, Australia and New Zealand) calls the sport "soccer," as do French Canadians. And Italians call it calcio.

Yeah, but in terms of actual association football playing countries, it's called a word that sounds like "football", with only the occasional exception.

If you look at the ELO world rankings, here's the top 20:

Spain: fútbol
Germany: Fußball
Brazil: futebol
Argentina: fútbol
Netherlands: Voetbal
England: football
Italy: calcio
Portugal: futebol
Colombia: fútbol
Mexico: fútbol
Russia: futbol
Croatia: nogotmet
Ecuador: fútbol
France: football
Ivory Coast: football
Sweden: fotboll
Chile: fútbol
Belgium: football/Voetbal
Uruguay: fútbol
Switzerland: Fussball

As someone that has lived in both Britain and America, my preference is to use the term "football" to refer to the family of sports, and then the terms "soccer", "rugby", "Aussie rules", "American football" to refer to the specific variant.
 
I'd agree that Football might be even bigger than it is. Football and Basketball are the two team sports that anyone can play anywhere. All you need is a ball.

Obviously, Basketball is played in a smaller more confined space than full 11-aside Football, so maybe some of the smaller derivations of Football are much bigger - the likes of 5-aside Football and Futsal for instance.

How do you play basketball without a hoop? You can hardly use jumpers.
 
Too culture-specific to suggest jai alai becoming popular? Baseball with nets...:p

I would say lacrosse, but nobody actually plays lacrosse.:p Not even Canadians, & its our official national game. (Why it is, I haven't the faintest clue.:confused::confused: Why they decided not to adopt hockey, the unofficial national game, I couldn't begin to guess.:confused::rolleyes:)
 
Last edited:
Boxing and Soccer would be more popular. Soccer wasn't unpopular in the US until the Depression. Soccer will be largely a minority sport in the US.

Would FIFA force integration of leagues?
 
In The Philippines, we call it football (Filipino spelling: futbol). Go Azkals! :D

phx1138, we have jai alai, but it's more of a gambling trend. :(

We do have motocross too. It is a sport as well??? :D
 
Top