YBIG 12
Sport #1. The unparalleled popularity of football among its competitors is not merely due to the figure of 250 million active players worldwide. This majestic team game has its roots in the Foggy Albion, yet its incredibly rapid spread across countries on all continents of the world could not but be a pleasant surprise to those who were among its first aficionados.
What is the real secret behind such grandiose, widespread fame? I offer my perspective. Just as the excitement of a football match draws fans from all walks of life, platforms like WantedWin cater to enthusiasts seeking diverse entertainment options, mirroring the universal appeal and varied tastes within the football fan community. This connection highlights the essence of football’s allure: the ability to bring people together, irrespective of background, through a shared passion.
Accessibility, Ease, and Mass Appeal
The game of football attracts with its vast possibilities for expression, almost anywhere. Because to devote time to this beloved pursuit of millions, there’s no need to meet any special requirements or criteria, whether regarding the participants or the venue for the battle.
The enjoyment of the game can be found almost everywhere – from a somewhat suitable indoor space to open ground in a hypothetical forest. It doesn’t matter whether you’re playing on a smooth surface with special covering or a green lawn next to the forest with some unevenness in the ground. There’s no need for a match to have specific field attributes either – imaginary boundaries can be agreed upon before the game starts, and goals can be made out of anything, such as two bricks or sticks buried in the ground.
The sphere with which the thrilling competition takes place is not an item that is difficult to find nowadays. Buying a ball is almost as easy as buying bread or a pack of tea. Depending on the size of one’s wallet and wishes, the cost of the ball can range from a few hundred to several thousand. Fortunately, the times when football was played with socks stuffed into a spherical shape or other fabrics have largely passed into oblivion in many countries, and Ukraine is no exception.
The number of persons involved is another strong point of football. In sport #1, you can play differently. It can be the classic 11 on 11, or any variation on the theme of the number of footballers in each team. Nowadays, in the courtyard of apartment buildings, at the schoolyard, or in the countryside, you can also see the following interesting situation. Sometimes, one of the teams has one or two fewer players, which is compensated for by the skill of another hastily gathered local collective.
To play, sometimes there’s no need to summon a company, organising two camps of people with different interests in everyday life, which leaves its mark on the gathering process as such. Just one friend is enough! Yes, you can play such “football” – one on one, with corresponding changes to the rules such as “you can only shoot towards the opponent’s goal from a certain point”. Such “football”, known from childhood as “goal to goal”, involves minimal running but with the same ultimate goal – a goal in the opponent’s net.
The Status of a Fashionable Activity, Maintained Year After Year
Football is cool and prestigious. Those who engage in the game come to this conclusion as quickly as they feel the need to get a new dose of always pleasant sensations from their favourite sport. And there are long obvious reasons for this.
Whether you like it or not, from childhood, you become the focus of the football industry. International football organisations such as UEFA and FIFA, along with famous clubs, have long been sponsors and partners of a wide variety of events not directly related to football. Through such approaches, as well as various advertising campaigns, the image of football as an all-encompassing factor that brings a positive note and significantly influences public opinion is successfully and convincingly created.
The Ukraine national team, Kiev’s Dynamo, Donetsk’s Shakhtar, and the world’s best clubs such as Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, or Manchester United also subconsciously influence a person’s attention, who might not even realise that they’ve been hooked by the loud name of a prestigious team, and sooner or later will definitely watch a game featuring a new object of their attention.
Over time, when you see an advertisement for crisps or your favourite drink, featuring a domestic or world football star, the chances that you will prefer that particular brand increase geometrically. Yes, football is also a huge industry aimed at capturing a person’s attention, the ultimate goal of which is not only to give the fan a basket of emotions from watching the match but also to capture a share of their wallet. Such is the world of consumption.
Significant Advantages Over Other Sports
The huge benefit of football over “competitors” is simplicity. At first glance, playing basketball, volleyball, hockey, tennis, or baseball is as easy as kicking a ball with your feet. However, in practice, one encounters numerous artificial obstacles.
For example, with the desire to devote time to basketball, you need to find a place where at least a conditional hoop with a net can be hung. If you don’t have at least two trees to which you can tie and fix an improvised “basket”, the task becomes much more complicated. The covering underfoot is another significant factor – a basketball will not bounce properly off ordinary sand or a forest path under your feet.
Volleyball requires a net, the provision of which is just as difficult as finding two posts or trees at appropriate leisure spots. Moreover, as with basketball, the rules of the game here are not as clear as when the ball is at a person’s feet. Participation in a hockey match, which does not depend on the season outside, and even more so in a tennis match, is not easier. The latter is called the “game of aristocrats” not by chance.
These are just the most common sports among humanity, not to mention such significantly more “demanding” activities in terms of equipment and venues, such as conditional car racing or horse racing.
The Attraction of Famous Personalities
The times when football was a sport for the chosen ones have passed. Over time, the game has become an activity for ordinary people who value active recreation and spectacle. An important factor in the popularity of sport #1 among different peoples has always been its famous representatives.
While football developed in the years without mass communications, high technology, and globalisation, each country had its heroes. If the Germans were proud of Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller, the British were fans of Stanley Matthews and Bobby Charlton, Italians could not price Gianni Rivera or Paolo Rossi, then Brazilians went mad over Pelé and Garrincha, Argentines prayed to Diego Maradona, and the French were willing to give their last to attend matches featuring Michel Platini.
Ukrainians behind the enemy’s iron curtain had their idols. Oleg Blokhin and Leonid Buryak, Anatoliy Demyanenko and Oleksandr Zavarov, Vitaliy Starukhin and Oleksiy Mykhailychenko. These and many other players were admired by millions in their time. Coach Valeriy Lobanovskyi was a figure of global stature and an icon for fans at home.
With the attainment of independence, they were succeeded by new domestic heroes. The names of Andriy Shevchenko, Serhiy Rebrov, and Oleksandr Shovkovskyi made waves in the 90s as part of Dynamo, in the early 2000s Shakhtar joined with Andriy Vorobey and Serhiy Atelkin, later – Dnipro with Yevhen Konoplyanka and Metalist with Marko Dević. These footballers were known throughout the country, their surnames were recognised even by those who were interested in sport #1 from time to time or for the company.
New times brought new trends. Open borders, accessibility of broadcasts, technical progress. All this contributed to the gradual appearance of foreign players in the Ukrainian championship and gave the opportunity to learn more about the best contemporary players from abroad, and then just everything. And so, attention gradually shifted to the performances of foreign stars after Diogo Rincón and Francelino Matuzalem, Miguel Veloso, and Fernandinho.
Kylian Mbappé, Jude Bellingham, and Erling Haaland in Ukraine today successfully compete for favour with Andriy Yarmolenko, Viktor Tsyhankov, and Mykhailo Mudryk. And Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi for decades have had no fewer people tracking their every move than, say, Artem Dovbyk and Anatoliy Trubin. But all of them contribute to maintaining boundless love for football and the desire to replicate the game of an idol in the company of friends on a pitch in the street or in a computer game in a comfortable home chair.
