# What country is LEAST interested in the World Cup? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [June 12, 2014, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-least-interested-in-the-world-cup/690625 "2014-06-12T14:36:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2014, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-least-interested-in-the-world-cup/690625/21 "2014-06-13T01:05:35Z")
What country? Texas country. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2014, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-least-interested-in-the-world-cup/690625/22 "2014-06-13T03:32:20Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > Israel? Looks like football is pretty much the [most popular sport](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_in_Israel) in Israel. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2014, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-least-interested-in-the-world-cup/690625/23 "2014-06-13T03:34:13Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > What country? Texas country. Flyover Country! ---
**Author:** ![Crawlspace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Crawlspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crawlspace)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2014, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-least-interested-in-the-world-cup/690625/24 "2014-06-13T03:59:24Z")
There’s an [article](http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21603420-worlds-largest-nations-will-play-almost-no-part-world-cup-there-are-signs) on the Economist right now looking at the popularity of soccer in China, India, Indonesia and, sort of, the US. It contains a chart of 2010 World Cup Audience Reach for 16 countries, defined as the percentage of the population tuning in for 20 consecutive minutes. ~85% for Japan, 70% for the UK, 30% for the US, etc. India is down at the bottom with an Audience Reach of around 5%. ---
**Author:** ![kk\_fusion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kk_fusion/32/15276_2.png) [@kk\_fusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kk_fusion)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2014, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-least-interested-in-the-world-cup/690625/25 "2014-06-13T06:47:35Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > India has never qualified for a World Cup. Qualified by default in 1950 as the last competing Asian team, but also withdrew before the actual tournament started. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2014, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-least-interested-in-the-world-cup/690625/26 "2014-06-13T10:31:20Z")
> [@andros](#): > > Looks like football is pretty much the [most popular sport](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_in_Israel) in Israel. Trust me, based on the amount of Brazilian and Argentinian flags that have popped up in people’s windows in the past few weeks, and the fact that _no-one is talking about anything else_, The Mondial (as we call the World Cup) is a \*huge \*deal in Israel. ---
**Author:** ![kferr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71e660/32.png) [@kferr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kferr)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2014, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-least-interested-in-the-world-cup/690625/27 "2014-06-13T14:08:48Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I’d be curious to discuss what country adjusting for population exhibits the LEAST interest in World Cup soccer. > > The natural and reflexive answer here is the USA, but I doubt this is true, because > > 1. Soccer interest is on the rise there and > **2. They’re in the World Cup and people will watch their countrymen play any sport.** > > Canada, for instance, might be even less interested. We don’t have a team in it. India perhaps even less; like Canada, they’re not in it and soccer is not the country’s most popular sport. > > Any other candidates? Bolding mine, this is not necessarily the case. America was in the 1999 Rugby World Cup. I sent a sports-mad friend this challenge “America has a national team playing in a World Cup competition right now, can you tell me what sport?”. He couldn’t find anything on the networks or websites. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2014, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-least-interested-in-the-world-cup/690625/28 "2014-06-13T14:41:11Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > The natural and reflexive answer here is the USA, but I doubt this is true, because > > 1. Soccer interest is on the rise there and > 2. They’re in the World Cup and people will watch their countrymen play any sport. As to point #2: If we ever field an international Cricket squad, don’t expect much enthusiasm here. As to soccer: The notion that the USA, collectively, is at best utterly disinterested in soccer, and at worst actively hostile to it, is a joke that’s been outdated for 20, if not 30 years. I suppose there was a time in the 80’s when you’d be hard-pressed to find any American (outside of various immigrant communities) who gave a shit about soccer, but those days are long gone. I remember in high school Spanish class having to read a bit about Diego Maradona and his performance in the '86(?) Cup. Prior to that assignment, I’d never heard of Maradona and wasn’t even aware that there had been a soccer tournament of some significance. The same would have been true for 99.99% of my classmates. During this time, soccer had apologists inside and outside the US who basically took the approach that our dislike of soccer was based on jingoism and xenophobia; that may have been true, but that’s not the best way to make your point. They preached “Soccer is the most popular sport in the world! You _have_ to embrace soccer in order to be a good world citizen!” I assure you, the quickest way to get on an American’s bad side is to tell him he _needs to_ do something for the good of the outside world. I think this fervent evangelism for soccer left a bad taste in a lot of Americans’ mouths about the sport; a bad taste that lingers, in many, to this day. However, 1994 changed a lot of that. We hosted the tourney, our stadiums were packed, and our team did reasonably well. We started [a league](http://www.mlssoccer.com/) that is popular, and growing, to this day. Will soccer ever be the most popular sport in the US? Unlikely, but not out of the question. Is soccer an afterthought, at best, in the US sports scene? Not any more. Will there be Americans who utterly disdain soccer? Of course, but are there not Brazilians, Mexicans, Europeans, etc. who utterly disdain soccer, too? ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2014, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-least-interested-in-the-world-cup/690625/29 "2014-06-13T14:57:31Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > As to point #2: If we ever field an international Cricket squad, don’t expect much enthusiasm here. [But you do!](http://www.usaca.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=86&Itemid=200) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-country-is-least-interested-in-the-world-cup/690625.md?page=1)