In the world of sports, there is no question that having your fans behind you plays a major role in your success. Not only knowing that people are on your side, but having them pump you up before a game, having them cheer you on en masse during a home game (and usually in smaller numbers when you are traveling), seeing your name on the backs of jerseys in shops around town. All these things keep people motivated and push them to stay on top of the competition.
So, just who are the world’s biggest teams? People don’t usually do a pan-sport comparison as they are mostly just concerned with their own local favorite. But it pays to think about. If we take all of the world’s sports together, how would we rank the fanaticism of constituent fan groups?
The Colombian legacy
There is no question that football is sacred to fans in South America. Indeed, the sport is almost like a religion to many people. For Colombians in particular, the sport plays a particular role in the country’s current geopolitical situation. Colombians have been fighting to improve their reputation on the world stage ever since the drug wars started. Football has been a way for them to win back some of their respect from the rest of the world.
This devotion primarily manifests itself in positive ways, with eager fans flooding football stadiums and painting themselves with their team’s colors from one end of the bleachers to the other. Occasionally, though, the fanaticism has gone too far. In 1994, goalie Andres Escobar was killed for losing to the US by accidentally scoring an own goal in that year’s World Cup.
American football also has its extremes
American football may not be as popular globally as its older counterpart, but it certainly draws devotion from its constituent fan bases. Fans of the Buffalo Bills American football team are known nationwide for several reasons. In this cold Northeastern city, football is everything to local residents. Fans invented a type of party to be held before games, known as the “tailgate party” in which people open up the trunks of their cars and eat and drink in the parking lots before games.
Bills fans were also known to have torn out the goalposts following a particularly dramatic and unexpected victory once. And a globally popular Hollywood movie was made out of the famous kicker who lost the US Superbowl in missing a last-minute goal by one point.
Let’s not forget cricket
The most popular sport in India shouldn’t be forgotten. Cricket fans will do anything to catch a game. It’s not uncommon to walk down the street in India and see large groups of people huddled over a phone during gametime. People travel untold distances just to catch a glimpse of a game.
And cricket has brought people together. Particularly – but not only – in India and Pakistan, the sport serves as a way of pronouncing nationalist sentiment in an arena where political tensions have been extremely high in recent decades. Even those who previously had no interest in the sport have been drawn in as a way of making their nationalist mark against the other team.
You can bet on your favorite team
With the rise of online betting apps and other associated technological tools, you can now wager on your favorite teams. You can get onto the best online betting app in India and try your luck at betting. What’s more, there is now a wide range of discussion forums, statistics sites, and other places online where you can gather information about sports and educate yourself.
Furthermore, these sites are becoming increasingly international. You can access them from anywhere in the world, and payment systems are becoming increasingly easy to use across national boundaries, as well. Bitcoin and other forms of cryptocurrency are becoming more widely accepted, both as forms of payment and winning. So give it a try; you never know when Lady Luck might just be on your side.
Team of the future?
Which will be the favorite team of the future? Who knows. Considering that football has been around in some form for almost 3000 years, it seems likely that the sport will stay on top in popularity. But new sports are coming up all the time, so the future will tell.