Why is wendyball so popular?

I quite don’t get it. Why not rugby or handball or basket ball. All need the same gear and cost roughly the same amount of money per month. Judo is working cheaper than football for a year of practice and If you keep your gear for two or three years bike is probably cheaper. What makes people want to play football rather than any other sports?

It must be ‘cos you call it wendyball

on a basic level all it costs is the price of a ball – or a rolled up ball of string, rags & other waste if you don’t even have the money for that. And the rules are relatively simple and easy to enforce.

Because its not rugby, basically

Small boys in the park? Jumpers for goalposts?

(ie.accessibility)

Cause your cool and manly. Hope a scout sees you and gives you 100k a week. Which 99 % of the time will never happen. IMO it’s lazy parents, here’s a football go and play.

Yes, it’s lazy parents! Are they left Wing too? Does everyone always win?

You are Call me Dave and I claim my scholarship to play rugby union at erm….. Rugby?

on a basic level all it costs is the price of a ball

on a more basic level it only costs 1/22 the price of a ball. I suppose its a bit more play-anywhere than other ball sports too. You can play footy in a carpark, in the street, in the back corner of the warehouse during tea break, anywhere really. Other ball games need better surfaces – you need to be able to throw yourself on the floor in rugby, you need a pretty big field for cricket, you need a net and a decent surface for tennis and if its not enclosed you’ll spend more time fetching the ball than playing.

I had to help out on one of our enclosing machines this morning, and the two blokes on the front end did nothing but talk football eight until noon. Dull, duller, dullest. 🙄

Because, as said above, all you need is a ball. That is why kids in the poorest parts of the world are fanatical about it and they can dream that one day they’ll make it to play in the premier league or la liga. Is the game of the poor and working classes the world over.

Look at rugby, in this country union is played by public school hooray henrys. Its no coincidence that in south Africa the poor blacks play football whilst the rich privileged whites play rugby, a pre apartheid split.

and the two blokes on the front end did nothing but talk football eight until noon. Dull, duller, dullest

The worst thing about football (but the best thing for its fans) is at the proffessional level the game is flawed, you get a near stalemate in the scoreline even if one team is running circles round the other. Two teams can play for an hour and a half and perhaps someone scores a point.

Generally that one point will the the result of a mishap, or fowl/penelty or whatever, and maybe it should have been called off-side, maybe it shouldn’;t have been….. so the score won’t necessarily reflect who the better team was. That makes the results are endlessly, endlessly, endlessly debatable and controversial. Ad Nausium.

.

There’s loads of variations, teams of any size, wembley, cuppies, double cuppies, shooties, 3&in, headers and volleys and many more I’ve forgotten or just never heard of. Basically, if you have 3 people and a ball you can have a competitive game of “football” – that’s got to have an impact on what people do growing up.

Plenty of things you can play with a ball other than just football. As the OP suggested, why not handball? I used to play two-touch American football at school with mates, that only needed a ball too.

Derogatory names aside, I largely agree with the OP. I just don’t understand why we’re so obsessed with football as a nation, to the detriment of all other sports. Even on the news, they’ll switch to “sports news” and it feels like five minutes of football with a brief closing comment at the end about anything else major that happened today. I suppose you’ve got to appeal to the masses but it feels like a bit of a shame.

I think it’s because it’s such a simple game – both the physical pieces of ‘kit’ you need to put a knockabout game together, as people have said above, and the rules of the game.

Compare the rules to to those in rugby (which I love and understand very well) which can seem impenetrable to casual observers (and occasionally to experienced fans!).

. Even on the news, they’ll switch to “sports news” and it feels like five minutes of football with a brief closing comment at the end about anything else major that happened today

that has more to do with the fan base than the game. No matter how good other sports are to play – the fans tend to be a bit half hearted. Rugby fans are crap, even for major matches they’ll wait til the day of the match and only buy a ticket if it doesn’t look like it’ll rain

simple game (*edit but with some aspects that some will never master – like marking and position .. ho hum)€, cheap/accessible/readily available facilities, accessible to nearly any age (I used to play with local village group 14 – 65 year old players, all playing appropriately), can pick your standard (*well within limits) and commitment level, has social aspects (pub afterwards), (IMHO) body size/shape is a bit less important than n some other sports, massive existing infrastructure etc

a truly great sport

Football is ace, just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean others shouldn’t.

As has already been said- at a basic level for a child it costs the price of a football, can be played almost anywhere and can involve as many or as little people as needs be. It encourages teamwork, discipline, technique and can be played equally by tiny, skinny people up to massive muscular people, and everything inbetween, safely in the same match.

With the best will in the world, even rugby can’t exactly be played on an inner city estate on rock hard concrete. I love cycling, but at a child’s level on the street it doesn’t exactly encourage teamwork and is far more expensive than football, lets be honest.

The whole Premiership/Sky hyperbole surrounding football does irritate but it overall it doesn’t detract from what a great sport it is. I don’t think billions of people can be wrong, nobody forced them to like it.

Football is ace, just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean others shouldn’t.

You miss the point I think. The argument isn’t “people shouldn’t like football”, the argument is “what’s wrong with the bazillion other ones?”

Because it’s good?

As above, it’s accessibility makes it so popular.

Kids in slums all over the world kicking about whatever they can find as a ball and having a great time.

Five a side leagues in just about every town and city in the UK with hundreds and hundreds of people of all ages turning up week in week out to have a kick about with mates.

Ps.

That was such a “hilarious” thread title, that I now no longer like football, and will not be renewing my season ticket.

Because it keeps you away from the type of person who feels it necessary to go onto the internet and whine about how special they are because they dislike it 😀

There is no real substitute for a ball struck squarely and firmly.

HAVE IT!

Coverage and persistence. 140 years ago it was probably the simplest and most playable form of football, which would’ve made it more popular. So there are more players, which makes for more clubs in the league, meaning that before long most people have a local team to support. In those days people thought much more locally than now, so you formed a strong allegiance to your local side. Which then gets passed on to your kids, and before you know it you’ve strong emotive ties to your local ‘tribe’ and bingo.

Seems to be some confusion on this thread. Media coverage is more related to the number of spectators than participants. How many of those paying for Sky Sports ever kick a ball?

Simple game, easy to understand, cheap to get into, crosses boundaries, all fair comments as to why someone would want to play football.

Can I ask a slightly different question? Why are we all so obsessed with watching it? All these sports to go at, why not watch something a bit more exotic, complex, or unusual?

Maybe it’s just me. I’m not picking on football per sé, but I’ve just never understood the fannish sport obsession. I’ve tried, I got into ice hockey for a while and went to games for a couple of years following Manchester Storm, it was fun and good to meet up with friends but ultimately the novelty wore off.

As an analogy perhaps: I’d buy tickets to see my favourite band in concert, but under normal circumstances(*) I wouldn’t want to buy a ticket to every date on the tour and follow them round, I’d rather go and see different artists and mix it up a bit.

(* – ie, not “last three gigs ever” or something)

I’d buy tickets to see my favourite band in concert, but under normal circumstances(*) I wouldn’t want to buy a ticket to every date on the tour and follow them round, I’d rather go and see different artists and mix it up a bit.

i’ve done that a few times in the past, but conversely i’ve never had a season ticket although i have been to a few games in a season (not been to any since moving to manchester though; i’m a sunderland lad!)

i reckon it’s just one of those things. i find most team sports to be incredibly dull and uninteresting but i’m quite happy to watch (and play) football. not arsed if others view it all differently.

How many of those paying for Sky Sports ever kick a ball?

they will have played it though. I can’t stomach watching soccer but I’ve kicked a ball

We only watch it because our team is involved. Whilst I’ve watched many a great game of football, most are just rubbish. As above – more fans (for historical local reasons) means more people watching it, regardless of quality.

I love sport in general, but I was born without any particular football allegiance so I only follow England games or sometimes an English side in Europe. Don’t care about normal games.

I enjoy rugby much more, but even though I live in Cardiff I can’t seem to get emotional about the Blues.

I don’t think it is s hugely popular sport to play is it?
I mean it is for kids for the reasons described above but it’s surely a far more popular spectator sport than a participant one.

As far as why it’s so popular to watch, well that’s easy.
If you like the colour blue you support the blue team, if you like the colour red you support the red team. The rest is just padding.

I just don’t understand why we’re so obsessed with football as a nation, to the detriment of all other sports.

Ha, you should come to Spain if you want to see what real football obsession is! Picked up a copy of the best-selling newspaper last week, it’s a sports newspaper – Marca. This was, of course, with the Olympics in full-swing. The first 13 pages were football. And the league hasn’t even started yet…

Anyway, my take on its popularity: it’s accessible, which means that most of us (men) have played it at some point, understand the rules, and have an inkling of how difficult it can be. That accessibility also means that there’s a massive pool of talent available, to my mind there’s no doubt that Messi, Beckham and the like are some of the most talented sportsmen out there.

That said, I’m not a huge fan. A match every now and then, maybe catch some of the highlights on the Sunday evening news, that’s enough for me.

How many of those paying for Sky Sports ever kick a ball?

Pretty much all of them (either currently or in the past)

How many people do you reckon would pay through the nose to watch football on sky having never played themselves ????

Nice try though, with the daily mail style “fat blokes watch football” etc etc etc.

It’s a game of many layers, you can start watching it and follow the basics quite easily, hence comments of it being a simple game. But the positional play and movement of players can be quite complicated, few seem to understand how a player can make space off the ball by making a run that draw opposition players away from the intended play.

Other team sports don’t seem to have that level of layered complexity.

Other team sports don’t seem to have that level of layered complexity.

Not sure as I’d agree with that.

Most team sports have similar levels of complexity. American Football leaps to mind here, it’s immensely complicated and tactical. I’m sure most other pitch-based sports are similar (ice-based, whatever).

You don’t think it’s a hugely popular sport to play? Seriously?

Just try and phone any of the numerous, huge 5 a side complexes and see if it’s possible to book a pitch if you haven’t been taking the same slot, weekly, for the last 5 years!

And good luck with that…. You may even get on a waiting list

apparently its measurably more exciting to watch than other sports and I suppose the excitng moments are all the way through the match as near misses are as exciting as a goal even though the goals are fairly seldom.

Something like motorsport is only edge of your seat exciting on the first and last lap, something like tennis and cricket the players are scoring continually but its only a steady accrual of points that leads to a win, the scoring of the points themselves, until its decisive, aren’t that much of a thrill. Cycling is only exciting to watch when the coverage is really well done – the TDF is great to watch (although again its only the last few mins that are thrilling) but other road races aren’t nearly as good to watch on TV

I don’t think it is s hugely popular sport to play is it?

I think it’s probably the most played team sport, possibly the most played competitive sport. When I was in school plenty of kids were playing Sunday league in their villages. Everywhere I worked I’ve known several people who play 5-a-side week in week out.

Other team sports don’t seem to have that level of layered complexity.

Most other team sports have that level of complexity (because they are all basically similar and the same principles apply) – some have much more. Rugby for instance.

You don’t think it’s a hugely popular sport to play? Seriously?
Just try and phone any of the numerous, huge 5 a side complexes and see if it’s possible to book a pitch if you haven’t been taking the same slot, weekly, for the last 5 years!
And good luck with that…. You may even get on a waiting list

Exactly. I was at our local playfootball.net place last night for one of the three weekly league nights.

They get between 700-1000 players on each of the three league nights, plus the other 4 nights of the week are solidly booked between 5:30 and 10:30 pm (they have 5 pitches I think ?)

(all those thousands of people will be the sky sports subscribers who never play football I would imagine 🙄 )

Most team sports have similar levels of complexity. American Football leaps to mind here, it’s immensely complicated and tactical. I’m sure most other pitch-based sports are similar (ice-based, whatever).

All other team sports have that level of complexity (because they are all basically similar and the same principles apply) – some have much more. Rugby for instance.

No they don’t, both American football and rugby have a high level of complexity that has to be understood from the start, football can be introduced at a more basic level as a spectator sport, its not about complexity per se, its about the layers of complexity.

Sorry Molgrips, you’re wrong – the structured nature, need for stricter rule enforcement and greater definition of roles within the team ( in rugby) mean that although initially appearing simple, footy is a far more complex game.

That’s the joy of it.