Football is the World Game

I'm not an Association Football fan. I much prefer Rugby football.

I used to play for fun/exercise in my 20s. Not to any standard, but enough to be able to appreciate the game a little.  I watch Match of The Day sometimes, and usually get sucked in to The World Cup, because the standard is usually pretty high.

In the Internet age, this means that every four years, I get exposed to Americans belittling soccer.

http://daringfireball.net/thetalkshow/2014/06/16/ep-085

The real reason for this is indoctrination in a sport other than football.  It's simply cultural bias. It's why I prefer Rugby, why Texans prefer Gridiron, why Canadians prefer Hockey, or the Swiss prefer Tennis.

It's important to understand that football is the world game.  I suspect it's popular for two reasons. The rules are really pretty simple, so it can be grasped easily. The only equipment needed is a field, or a street or a car park; a football, volleyball, tennis ball, tin can, or even a stone. And, of course, jumpers for goalposts.  It's a game all almost all children, all over the world can play for free.  In unsupervised children's games, the only vaguely complex rule, offside, is discarded in favour of simply ridiculing goal-hangers.  Offside is enforced by peer pressure.

A common theme in disparaging football is that the one thing that separates us from animals is our hands, and hands aren't allowed.  I find this puzzling. The main thing that separates us from animals is our brains.  Other animals have hands, can use tools, are bipedal etc.  None can understand and play football.

I'd add something about baseball fielders needing catchers' mitts, which seems laughable to someone who's played cricket, but that would just be wallowing in the ignorance of my own cultural bias.