As in many parts of the world, football is the king sport in Europe. Its current form and rules even originated on the continent, in the United Kingdom, during the 1860s. The sport then spread to continental Europe, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark, mainly thanks to universities. From the 1930s, with the organization of the first World Cups, football became an international sport and extremely popular.
The Present Day Situation
Today, this sport continues to grow in importance, both economically and socially. Helped by the liberalization of transfers or the exponential increase of television rights, football now has a considerable financial weight. So much so that some world famous clubs like Real Madrid, FC Barcelona or Manchester United are valued at more than 3 billion euros. Now that with the MLB중계 you can have the best live broadcast, you can get the best updates.
But the persistent success of football is also due to the fact that it is not the prerogative of an elite or a mere audiovisual show. Indeed, it is also, by far, the sport most practiced by Europeans. For example, 1.2 million Dutch and 4.3 million Italians are registered in a club to play football, 7% of the total population of these two countries. Apart from rare exceptions, football is the most important sport in the 28 member states of the European Union.
Match de football amateur
At the professional level, logically, the most populous European nations are the ones with the most chances of winning trophies. In fact, only Germany, Spain, France, Italy and England managed to win a World Cup. This does not prevent other selections from regularly getting great results, like Portugal, reigning European champion, the Netherlands, three-time World Cup finalists, Belgium, Croatia or even Greece, European Champion in 2004.
In this respect, the next edition of the Euro will take place in 2020 and will be organized for the first time on the whole continent in 13 different cities.
Are Europeans really athletic?
If more than 40% of Europeans practice sport more or less regularly, the 2014 Eurobarometer survey also revealed that 42% of Europeans never practice sport, with a 3% increase since the previous survey in 2009 This is why, at national and European level, policies are being implemented to promote sport. The European Week of Sport, which takes place every year from 23 September, is part of this context.
Europeans, fans of team sports
Besides football, other collective sports are very popular in Europe, most of them gaining notoriety and financial weight. This is the case of rugby, a sport derived from football, practiced by a growing number of Europeans. Indeed, if the British nations, France and Italy are the most famous, as participants of the Tournament of VI Nations, other countries see their performance improve over the years. Among these, it is possible to mention Romania and, to a lesser extent, Germany, Spain and Portugal.
Last Words
Handball is also becoming a major sport in many European countries. Thanks to excellent results worldwide, it is one of the essential sports disciplines in France, Spain and Germany. Some “smaller” countries have also made a specialty of the sport, such as Croatia, Denmark and Sweden, to the point of competing with football in popularity.
