The second most viewed video I have ever made, and one of only two videos I have done with more than a million views, was a look at 7 countries where football isn’t the most popular sport.
Now, whilst football is by far and away the most popular sport on Earth, there are actually far more than seven countries where football isn’t the most popular sport, and I would’ve done a follow-up or part two to that video if it wasn’t for the fact that every time I’ve ever done a part two for a successful video it has been an absolute disaster.
I did spot a suggestion in the comments recently though asking if I would do a video on the seven countries with the strongest national football teams representing nations where football isn’t the most popular sport, and since you have read that video title, decided to click on it and are now watching the introduction to that video, you’ve probably guessed by now that I decided I would take that subscribers suggestion on board and have a go at it.
As with that video almost 18 months ago, it can be tricky to say exactly what is the most popular sport in a country. In many, the statistics aren’t particularly comprehensive or reliable, and even when they are they can throw up scattered results. For example, football might be the fourth most played sport in a country but still the most watched, and how – therefore – do you decide which sport is most popular. For the purposes of this video, I have left out a country such as Wales, where there is a debate to be had between whether rugby or football is the most popular sport. It’s such a close call in Wales, and the case for football is so strong, that I really wouldn’t feel comfortable including it in the seven. Thankfully, in 90+% of cases, it’s very obvious which sport is the most popular. To avoid controversy, the countries are ranked by their FIFA World Ranking, rather than my opinion.
Here are the 7 best national teams where football isn’t the most popular sport:
7. Finland
The black sheep of the Nordic countries when it comes to football, particularly given Iceland’s recent success on the international stage, Finns have just never taken to football in quite the same way as the Swedes, Danes, Norwegians and Icelandics. Pesäpallo is the national sport of Finland, sometimes referred to as ‘Finnish baseball’, although it isn’t the nation’s most popular sport either. When it comes to television viewing numbers and media coverage, the most popular sports in Finland are ice hockey and Formula One. In terms of live viewing figures and attending spectators, ice hockey comes out on top, with football trailing harness racing in third.
The only area in which football does come out on top is active participation and registered players, as is often the case due to the simplicity of the sport, and the number of people playing football in Finland is constantly on the rise. The omens on this front are good for Finnish football, with statistics suggesting the sport is particularly popular among young people.
As historically and currently, for now at least, not Finland’s most popular sport, it should come as little surprise that Finland have enjoyed much less success in international football than Denmark or Sweden. The country has still produced a couple of gems like Jari Litmanen and Sami Hyypia, but they have never reached the finals of a European Championships or World Cup. That could all change at Euro 2020 with the expansion of teams in the competition, as Finland are currently second in their group, and they’ll no doubt qualify for the World Cup when FIFA decides to make it an 87 team tournament. Finland’s star men right now are goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky who stars for Bayer Leverkusen, and striker Teemu Pukki of Norwich City, and the Eagle-owls currently come in 54th in FIFA’s World Rankings.
6. Australia
Aussie fans show their support during the match between Mark Philippoussis of Australia and Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden during the quarterfinals of the Davis Cup between Sweden and Australia…
Australia is a nation which loves and plays sport like few others, and there is a little bit of debate about which sport is actually the most popular in the country. Cricket, aussie rules and rugby union are generally regarded as the three most popular sports, whilst football is actually the most popular sport in terms of participation among children, but certainly not adults – and figures suggest the number of people who continue to play football – or soccer – after leaving school or college could be a stumbling block. Although cricket has historically been the most popular sport in Australia, recent evidence and the number of viewing spectators present a compelling case for Aussie rules now being the nation’s favourite sport – although this does vary greatly from region to region, it should be said.
Australia’s most popular sports are largely a reflection of it’s British colonial past, and Australia’s football loving-kids suggest – as with Finland – that the sport could be on the rise. The A-League averages around 10,000 fans at games across a league season, although the national team have previously played in front of 100,000 strong attendances – not in recent times I ought to add.
Australia has still produced a handful of very good footballers like Harry Kewell, Tim Cahill and Mark Viduka, although their current squad lacks a real standout star man. Matt Ryan and Aaron Mooy are the pick of the bunch, and Australia are still good enough to have qualified for the last four World Cups, they just haven’t won a game at the last two. They’re much more competitive at regional level, having dominated the OFC and a real force in the AFC since their switch in 2005, and their 44th place FIFA World Ranking puts them sixth in this seven.
5. South Korea
With four of the nations in this seven, football falls considerably below one or more other sports in the popularity charts, but South Korea is one of the other three where it is a much tighter call. Polling in 2018 showed that football still trailed baseball in terms of popularity in the country, but the gap is certainly closing, and football may soon overtake the sport traditionally closest to South Koreans hearts. Baseball was introduced to South Korea in 1905 by American missionaries, and it has retained a popular following ever since. 23.4% of Koreans consider themselves to be baseball fans, narrowly ahead of the 19.2% who identify as football fans.
The gap is much bigger when it comes to match-attending spectators however, with Korea’s highest baseball league – KBO League – averaging over 11,000 fans a game last season, whilst the K-League only averaged around five-and-a-half thousand. That is partly because a lot of South Koreans choose to follow European football rather than their domestic game.
From Cha Bum-kun to Park Ji-sung, there have been some great Korean footballers over the years who have made a real impression at the highest level of the European game. The brightest light and shining star of the Korean game right now is of course Son Heung-min, and he is close to eclipsing the achievements even of those two greats already. South Korea have qualified for the last nine World Cups, and ten tournaments in total, and they come in at 37th in the FIFA World Rankings.
4. Japan
A crowd of people wave Japanese flags and cheer during a ceremony to celebrate Emperor Akihito’s 71st birthday at the Imperial Palace December 23, 2004 in Tokyo, Japan.
Japan and South Korea jointly hosted the World Cup back in 2002, in the hope that it would raise the sports profile in the region, and it has certainly done that. The East Asian duo come in almost neck-and-neck in this seven, and the Japanese have a real passion for both their ancient sports like sumo wrestling and martial arts, as well as the sports imported from the west like football, baseball and basketball.
Sumo wrestling is Japan’s national sport, but the Nippon Professional Baseball league is the most watched Japanese sporting league both on TV and in terms of attendance. Just as it has in South Korea, baseball has long been the most popular sport in Japan, and the data suggests that still is. Football has only really taken off in Japan since the 1980’s, with significant spikes in popularity that can be attributed to the birth of the J-League in 1992 and the hosting of the 2002 World Cup a decade on.
Japan had never featured at the World Cup up until the 1998 finals in France, but they have competed in all six editions since then. The Samurai Blue are yet to get beyond the Round of 16, but they have won the Asian Cup four times. Their best current players include the likes of Shinji Kagawa and Shoya Nakajima, and Japan currently come in 31st in FIFA’s World Rankings.
3. Republic of Ireland
The last of the three nations where a slight case could be made for football in this seven, but also the one where arguably the strongest case could be made, football has to be among the three most popular sports in the Republic of Ireland. Gaelic football, hurling and association football are often cited as those three at the top of the tree, and as I alluded to the intro there’s a big split in terms of popularity when it comes to watching and playing. The League of Ireland attendances really struggle, whilst Gaelic football can attract some big crowds, with Ireland’s gaelic football attracting roughly twice as many viewers as its association football on average.
By contract, association football is the team sport with by far the highest active participation in Ireland, with twice as many adults playing association football than Gaelic football. As with South Korea, many Irish football fans choose to follow football clubs based outside of Ireland – particularly the Premier League or Celtic – hence the struggles for domestic crowds.
Ireland has produced a number of world class footballers over the years, from Liam Brady to Roy Keane, although the current crop is a little lacking in star quality. There are some really capable players, particularly in defence, but no-one who is going to be up for Ballon d’Or nomination anytime soon. Ireland haven’t qualified for the World Cup since their chaotic appearance at the finals in 2002, although they have reached the last two European Championships, and they’re ranked 28th by FIFA’s World Rankings.
2. Venezuela
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There can be no doubt about the most popular sport in Venezuela, with the country sticking out like a saw thumb as the only South American nation where football doesn’t reign supreme. Baseball has long been the most popular sport in Venezuela, and it still is by some distance. Somewhat bizarrely, you can pinpoint the exact moment in which baseball became Venezuela’s most popular sport, and that was back in 1941. The country recorded a shock win against Cuba in the 1941 Amateur World Series, sending the nation into delirium.
Some 100,000 people turned out to welcome the victorious players back to Venezuela, over one third of the nation’s population at that time. A professional baseball league was set up in 1945, and the rest – as they say – is history. Football, meanwhile, isn’t even Venezuela’s second most popular sport, trailing basketball in third. A professional football league wasn’t established up until 1957, and for a long time Venezuela were nicknamed the “whipping boys” due to the heavy defeats they suffered in a really competitive confederation. Venezuela is the only CONMEBOL nation not to have featured at the World Cup, and their highest finish in the Copa America was 4th in 2011.
Venezuela are the highest ranked nation in the FIFA World Rankings of any nation that has never reached the World Cup finals though, which is a strange sort of positive/negative fact. From Tomas Rincon and Salomon Rondon to Josef Martinez, there is some Venezuelan talent out there right now, although Martinez has actually semi-retired from international duty due to disagreements with the team management. Nevertheless, Venezuela have beaten the likes of the United States, Bolivia and Argentina in 2019, and they’re ranked 26th by FIFA’s World Rankings.
1. USA
Speaking of the United States of America, the Stars and Stripes take top spot in this seven as the highest ranked national football team representing a nation in which football is not the most popular sport. Historically, the four most popular sports in the United States have been baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey. Of the four, baseball and American football are the most popular, and whilst baseball has been coined as the ’nation’s pastime’, American football is now almost certainly the most popular sport in the country. According to recent data, 37% of Americans consider American football to be their favorite spectator sport, 11% prefer basketball and 9% prefer baseball.
There is evidence to suggest that association football – or soccer – has overtaken ice hockey in terms of both participation and attendances, with MLS crowds having exceeded NHL attendances on average every year since 2011. Soccer most assuredly is not the most popular sport in the United States, however, and it will be a long time before it is, if it ever is for that matter.
It is growing in popularity all the time though, and soccer enjoys vast participation numbers among women in particular. Whilst the women’s time is the dominant force in the women’s game, the men’s team have struggled against their more football-adoring competitors. The USMNT failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, the first finals the country has missed since 1986, but they have recorded draws against Chile and Uruguay in 2019, and sit 21st in the FIFA World Rankings.