France Football accuses Qatar of bribing votes for the 2022 World Cup

Map of most popular sport by country. Looks pretty accurate by most accounts.

Australia is debatable, cricket is extremely popular (if not no.1 then defo no.2) but I think Aussie Rules football takes it there. Also, the UAE shows up with cricket as the most popular sport and that's mainly because of the immigrants from South Asia but again football really is the most popular sport over there easily (source: I lived there). Cricket unsurprisingly top in South Asia and the Caribbean, baseball unsurprisingly top in Venezuela, Cuba, Japan, rugby unsurprisingly top in Oceania.

Austria with skiing???

footyfan said:

Map of most popular sport by country. Looks pretty accurate by most accounts.

Australia is debatable, cricket is extremely popular (if not no.1 then defo no.2) but I think Aussie Rules football takes it there. Also, the UAE shows up with cricket as the most popular sport and that's mainly because of the immigrants from South Asia but again football really is the most popular sport over there easily (source: I lived there). Cricket unsurprisingly top in South Asia and the Caribbean, baseball unsurprisingly top in Venezuela, Cuba, Japan, rugby unsurprisingly top in Oceania.

Austria with skiing???

Click to expand...

Pretty dubious in my opinion. Stereotypes galore.

What does "popular sport" even mean? By the number of people actually participating in the sport or the number of followers/fan base?

There is no way ping pong is China's favorite sport. A lot of people play ping prong for sure, but if you ask the average sport fan whether you are going to watch a table tennis tournament or a football tournament, football wins hands down.

And how does South Korea differ from Japan? Both have a vibrant baseball scene, but somehow Japan is deemed a baseball nation while South Korea is a football nation?

Luftstalag14 said:

Pretty dubious in my opinion. Stereotypes galore.

What does "popular sport" even mean? By the number of people actually participating in the sport or the number of followers/fan base?

There is no way ping pong is China's favorite sport. A lot of people play ping prong for sure, but if you ask the average sport fan whether you are going to watch a table tennis tournament or a football tournament, football wins hands down.

And how does South Korea differ from Japan? Both have a vibrant baseball scene, but somehow Japan is deemed a baseball nation while South Korea is a football nation?

Click to expand...

Um no man, ping pong is definitely Chinas fav sport. If its not, only badminton rivals it.

Caps said:

Um no man, ping pong is definitely Chinas fav sport. If its not, only badminton rivals it.

Click to expand...

Again, what is the definition of "favorite sport"?

Participatory or spectator sport?

And I want to see some numbers behind these claims.

Guys, do you realize it doesn't mean anything if a sport is popular or not?

http://www.ussoccer.com/about/history/us-soccer-as-host/1994-fifa-world-cup.aspx

The WC94 had the biggest attendance and to this day the record is still not surpassed.

It will not be a problem at all if USA gets the WC. Actually that's where everyone could make the best money.

But that said, that's not the problem. FIFA should not go around giving the WC just like that, it needs a new vote.

There were an interview with the former Swedish UEFA president Lennart Johansson the other day. He dissed Sepp Blatter so hard and Quatar would have never gotten the World Cup without bribes.

"Blatters reaction, calling people racists, is a normal reaction from Blatter"

"Johansson was the UEFA president between 1990 and 2007. 1998 he ran for Fifa president but lost the duel against Sepp Blatter and Johansson is convinced that the election did not go quite right.

- People around me, those I have worked with for 20 years, which I know well, said they could prove that there were bribes that made ​​it a different outcome than what it really should have been. They saw brown envelopes that was handed over to the right and left"

" -People didnt dare to say anything, becouse it could hurt them personally. 1 person against Blatter and FIFA, you will most likely loose anyways. Theres no gain in beeing honest, so people keep quiet"

Bertus said:

Guys, do you realize it doesn't mean anything if a sport is popular or not?

http://www.ussoccer.com/about/history/us-soccer-as-host/1994-fifa-world-cup.aspx

The WC94 had the biggest attendance and to this day the record is still not surpassed.

It will not be a problem at all if USA gets the WC. Actually that's where everyone could make the best money.

But that said, that's not the problem. FIFA should not go around giving the WC just like that, it needs a new vote.

Click to expand...

Sweden won a bronze medal in WC94, so its considered one of the best WCs ever here
It was a great WC overall aswell. Great atmosphere.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHtiG5ezkUI

One of the best freekicks ever https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzV4KNj51Do

Ah...the memories...*sniff*

footyfan said:

Map of most popular sport by country. Looks pretty accurate by most accounts.

Australia is debatable, cricket is extremely popular (if not no.1 then defo no.2) but I think Aussie Rules football takes it there. Also, the UAE shows up with cricket as the most popular sport and that's mainly because of the immigrants from South Asia but again football really is the most popular sport over there easily (source: I lived there). Cricket unsurprisingly top in South Asia and the Caribbean, baseball unsurprisingly top in Venezuela, Cuba, Japan, rugby unsurprisingly top in Oceania.

Austria with skiing???

Click to expand...

Looks so wrong, Estonia has skiing as most popular sport, which is utter bs. Its football by far.

Maybe more people ski than play football?

Poor_Sunyol said:

Maybe more people ski than play football?

Click to expand...

Maybe they play football while sking

Now that I would pay to watch!

Im pretty sure hockey is more popular than football in Russia and Sweden too

Poor_Sunyol said:

Maybe more people ski than play football?

Click to expand...

Even that is not true, at least not anymore, if we are lucky we get snow for more than 1 month maybe every 3rd year here. Cannot compare it to football that can be played more or less 11 months.

I was wondering what question was put to them to make this survey. It could have been; do you ski or do you play football?

Joppe said:

Im pretty sure hockey is more popular than football in Russia and Sweden too

Click to expand...

No, football is much bigger in Sweden. Handball is the biggest sport on Iceland though

Behrox said:

Maybe they play football while sking

Click to expand...