British Dopers: How Popular, Really, Is Association Football In Your Country?

The Game Room
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1

Growing up, I believed (based on news reports of rampant football hooliganism at the time, combined with a young mind that couldn’t separate hyperbole from reality) that every last Briton was 100 percent all-in on association football. That everything in the country stopped when The Match was on. That British babies were born wearing their favorite team’s kit. Etc.

As an adult, I’ve learned that this isn’t true at all. That there are British sports fans who like tennis or rugby or what have you more than football. That there are Britons who don’t like football, or sports, at all.

About what percentage of your country is truly into football? Define “truly into football” as you will. As a data point, it seems that, though we have a strong sports culture here in the States, a solid 62% aren’t into sports at all, via the Pew Research Center. I’d have though that number was closer to 30%, but that’s why the Pew Research Center is a respected collector of useful data, and I’m just some guy.

So about how many out of 100 Britons don’t give a shit about the football match? How many will have a casual interest? How many will change plans to be able to see it?

2

I know around 100 people from my local pub well enough to know their opinions on football. I can think of maybe 10 (myself included) with no interest in football. At the other end of the spectrum there are around 10 that are season ticket holders for teams from the Premiership all the way down to the lower divisions. There are some that prefer rugby but may watch football when the world cup is on. The pub has a TV but not a subscription to Sky Sports where most of the matches are shown. So a few will gather around an iPad whenever there is a evening match on. Big matches like the upcoming FA Cup finals are shown on BBC so that will draw a fair crowd to the pub.

3

I have nothing to contribute to the question, but I find it interesting that this thread has been tagged (automatically by Discourse?) as being about “tennis” and “rugby” but not “soccer” or “football.”