Soccer in Asia

My first post on this blog started by saying that the first form of football was played in Asia. I looked into more current Asian soccer and I thought it would be worthwhile writing a post about it. 

I'll start off with some background information. Asian soccer is governed by a body called the Asian Football Confederation or AFC for short. The AFC has 47 countries within it, which are split into five regions.

• 12 from west Asia
• 6 from central Asia
• 7 from south Asia
• 10 from east Asia
• 12 from south east Asia

At the moment Australia is the top ranked team, having won the AFC Asian Cup in 2015 while Japan is the most successful team in the history of the cup, having won it 4 times since it's creation in 1956.

Unfortunately, research that I've done indicates that Asian soccer is on the decline. The main reasons given are match fixing, poor domestic leagues and too few players playing abroad. I find that the 2nd and 3rd reason tie into each other. If all the talented asian players are playing in these poor domestic leagues then they don't have a chance to develop their talent like they could in a european league.

Maybe the reason Asian soccer is on the decline is because things like this happen:

haha, just kidding. Things like this can happen in any game of soccer.

thats all for now.

(Pictures and information taken from: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Football_Confederation and worldsoccertalk.com/2014/07/01/5-reasons-why-asian-soccer-is-on-the-decline/ )

(Youtube video taken from: www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1uBlqM_1R8 )

The future of soccer

The sport of soccer is the most popular sport in world, that is a well known fact. The question is how can it get any bigger. I will attempt to answer that question the best I can in this post.

Most people will be able to tell you that love for soccer is commonplace in most European and south American countries and that this has been the case for many years. I find that the key to the growth of the sport is expanding its borders of popularity to whole world. This expansion has already begun. Soccer is becoming massively popular in north America with the establishment of Major League Soccer in 1993. Ever since being founded the MLS has been a massive success. The MLS is currently seeing a massive surge of success with 6 new MLS teams formed in the last 2 years, 4 of which are yet to have formally joined the league.

Seattle Sounders fans supporting their club

Soccer is mainly watched by males aged 19-25. Another key to the growth of soccer is gaining popularity with other demographics. Many women in north America became invested in the sport earlier this year when the US women's national team won the won the women's world cup. I believe that soccer will successfully expand, especially to children.

Thats all for now.

(Picture taken from: www.sbnation.com/soccer/2014/10/31/7102679/seattle-sounders-supporters-shield-2014-mls-cup-playoffs )

Soccer as an Industry

It is a well known fact that the sport of soccer has become a worldwide industry worth billions. The Barclays premier league has the highest revenue of any football league in the world. Its revenue is estimated to be around 2.9 BILLION euro. Crazy to think that something that started off in an English school yard has turned into this. Manchester United alone are worth over 500 million dollars.

The other major leagues in Europe, the La Liga, the Bundesliga, the Serie A and the ligue 1 all have a revenue of over 1 Billion dollars. FC Bayern Munchen is the most valuable football brand coming in just shy of 900 Million dollars. Many others clubs like Real Madrid CF and Paris Saint Germain are posting figures almost as high.

We have talked a lot about clubs and how they're worth a lot but now I want to focus in more on the actually commodity: the players. Here are some absurd statistics: Gareth Bale, the world's most expensive player, was purchased by Real Madrid for a fee of approximately 100 Million euro. The average annual wage for a Barcelona player is 7,910,737 dollars. How about this one: Cristiano Ronaldo makes approximately 13 Million euro, that's just 35,000 euro a day. Absolutely mind blowing.

That's all for now.
Ps. sorry about inconvenience with switching currencies.

(Statistics and pictures taken from: www.statista.com )

Soccer Today

In my last post I talked about how soccer had grown over many centuries and eventually developed into this great, big thing which has people of every culture captivated. this what ill about now: how big soccer has become and the massive impact it has.

I think its a good idea to start off by saying that FIFA estimates that approximately 1 BILLION people worldwide tuned in to watch the world cup final match between Germany and Argentina. That's almost 1in 7 of the worlds population. Even though many people believe there is proof that this figure is heavily overblown, its still an amazing figure. Its also worth noting the massive changes that have occurred in women's soccer. In my last post I mentioned that women were banned from playing football in England and Scotland until only 40 years ago. I can gladly say that a lot has changed since then. Earlier this year the US women's national team won the women's world cup and their final against Japan, smashed the record viewership for soccer in the united states.

The USWNT lifting the World Cup

Today, soccer is the worlds most popular sport. Its played across every continent and most likely being played now on a sports ground near you. Many people play this sport religiously and it has a massive impact on their lives. A great example of this impact is soccer in poor areas of brazil. Many young people in the favelas of Brazil play football as a way of life. Its their primary hobby, and it gives them an escape from the poverty and crime surrounding them. This has lead to many clubs being established in these poor areas which is improving the lives of many children.

Soccer has never stopped growing and it won't stop in the foreseeable future. With the establishment of the MLS it is growing rapidly in the USA and Canada. I think its safe to say soccer has a bright future. Next ill be talking about soccer as a worldwide industry.

Thats all for now.

(Pictures taken from: www.theguardian.com/football/live/2015/jul/05/womens-world-cup-2015-final-usa-v-japan-live and

 www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/picturegalleries/6832706/World-Cup-2010-football-culture-around-the-world.html?image=17 )

crediting

Credit to: http://www.bianoti.com/soccer-ball-backgrounds.html for the background picture

Introduction

Hi, my name is Lukasz Kaminski and this is my new blog about the geography of soccer. I hope you enjoy.