In what countries is Football NOT the number 1 sport?

Pisco Sour

chopperbyrne wrote: »

I have no idea.

Does it matter? Is the number of clubs a good indication of the number of participants?

Absolutely

Especially considering the amount of teams some GAA clubs have!

Pisco Sour

chopperbyrne wrote: »

Really? I used to live in Donnycarney and it never seemed to be that much. I stand corrected.

Still doesn't doesn't mean that Gaelic football is the most played sport though.

I guess it depends on what you consider "participation".

If you consider a bunch of lads going for a kick-about then Soccer is definetely the most played sport. But if you consider only people who play for a proper club/school/ college team (at any level) then GAA would be higher I feel.

Sure I've never played Soccer at any sort of level for any club or school, but would always go for a kick-about with my friends for the laugh. Does that make me a Soccer "Participant"?

I should surely hope not.

_blank_

04072511 wrote: »

I guess it depends on what you consider "participation".

If you consider a bunch of lads going for a kick-about then Soccer is definetely the most played sport. But if you consider only people who play for a proper club/school/ college team (at any level) then GAA would be higher I feel.

Sure I've never played Soccer at any sort of level for any club or school, but would always go for a kick-about with my friends for the laugh. Does that make me a Soccer "Participant"?

I should surely hope not.

Certainly not. Let's take only 11-a-side games. (We'll discount 5,6-a-side and indoor football, and lads on the local field playing heads an volleys.)

Look at the league Boardeaux play in. There are matches Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings. Eleven Divisions of ten teams each.

That's 110 Teams. Say with an average of 14 lads per team, per game (we get ~18 at matches, other teams turn up with a bare 11).

110 times 14 is ~1,540 lads playing in our league, in Dublin, week in week out. There are similar leagues in Cork, but on a smaller scale numbers wise. But lets stick to Dublin for now.

Then you have the weekend leagues.

In the Dublin & District Schoolboy League this weekend you have about 330 games (from U11 to U18)

That's 660 teams, each again with 14 players allowed to play in each match

660 times 14 is ~9200

Step up to the Leinster Senior League. This has 24 Divisions of 12 Teams, playing over Saturday and Sunday.

That's 288 teams, again with 14 lads allowed to participate each week

14 times 288 is ~4000

So, from all age groups/standards there are about 15,000 lads from age 11 upwards all playing at least one competitive game of football each week.

In the Dublin/Leinster area.

I have left out many, many leagues there, and totally omitted women.

Is there that many people playing any other sport on such a regular basis in Dublin? I highly doubt it.

Soccer is a HUGE participatory sport in this country, and is played in big numbers on nearly every day of the week.

Pisco Sour

Des wrote: »

Certainly not. Let's take only 11-a-side games. (We'll discount 5,6-a-side and indoor football, and lads on the local field playing heads an volleys.)

Look at the league Boardeaux play in. There are matches Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings. Eleven Divisions of ten teams each.

That's 110 Teams. Say with an average of 14 lads per team, per game (we get ~18 at matches, other teams turn up with a bare 11).

110 times 14 is ~1,540 lads playing in our league, in Dublin, week in week out. There are similar leagues in Cork, but on a smaller scale numbers wise. But lets stick to Dublin for now.

Then you have the weekend leagues.

In the Dublin & District Schoolboy League this weekend you have about 330 games (from U11 to U18)

That's 660 teams, each again with 14 players allowed to play in each match

660 times 14 is ~9200

Step up to the Leinster Senior League. This has 24 Divisions of 12 Teams, playing over Saturday and Sunday.

That's 288 teams, again with 14 lads allowed to participate each week

14 times 288 is ~4000

So, from all age groups/standards there are about 15,000 lads from age 11 upwards all playing at least one competitive game of football each week.

In the Dublin/Leinster area.

I have left out many, many leagues there, and totally omitted women.

Is there that many people playing any other sport on such a regular basis in Dublin? I highly doubt it.

Soccer is a HUGE participatory sport in this country, and is played in big numbers on nearly every day of the week.

Never disputed it being #1 in Dublin. But theres more to Ireland than just Dublin. In most counties Gaelic Football is still king.

Crow71

Where im from (cork) I can name 30 gaa clubs in my area and in the same area there are 4 soccer clubs

Xavi6

With regards to participation, how many astro parks have sprung up over the past 5 years or so?

Those places are an absolute gold mine when you consider that the only real thing involved in the upkeep is an electricity bill and they are fully booked out pretty much every night of the week (and are used by schools during the day).

I think they're responsible for a lot of people going back to football on a more casual basis.

chopperbyrne

Xavi6 wrote: »

With regards to participation, how many astro parks have sprung up over the past 5 years or so?

Those places are an absolute gold mine when you consider that the only real thing involved in the upkeep is an electricity bill and they are fully booked out pretty much every night of the week (and are used by schools during the day).

I think they're responsible for a lot of people going back to football on a more casual basis.

And they almost all are involved in 5 and 6 aside leagues that run for a few months at a time, several times a year.

Someone mentioned GAA clubs having lots of teams, well my local soccer club (Kilnamanagh AFC) have 13 teams across all ages and genders. The local GAA club (St. Kevins/Killians) has far less than that for Gaelic football and I'm not even sure if they have a hurling team.

Most soccer clubs in this country don't have a clubhouse or even decent facilities. It's just local people running a team because they enjoy soccer.

Pisco Sour

chopperbyrne wrote: »

And they almost all are involved in 5 and 6 aside leagues that run for a few months at a time, several times a year.

Someone mentioned GAA clubs having lots of teams, well my local soccer club (Kilnamanagh AFC) have 13 teams across all ages and genders. The local GAA club (St. Kevins/Killians) has far less than that for Gaelic football and I'm not even sure if they have a hurling team.

Most soccer clubs in this country don't have a clubhouse or even decent facilities. It's just local people running a team because they enjoy soccer.

Kilnamanagh is in Dublin, which we all accept is a place where Soccer is more popular than Gaelic Football. But as I said before Dublin does not make up the entire country of Ireland.

Dozen Wicked Words

So to sum up, Soccer can be called football, but some prefer if it isn't. Soccer (or football (though some prefer if you don't call it that)) is popular in 226 countries, but is probably not, because there aren't enough countries for that stat.

Soccer (or football if you prefer, although some prefer if you don't) may be more popular in Ireland, or it may be football (which some would prefer if you called it Gaelic Football or GAA, but others wouldn't)

Good.

ROCKMAN

Afghanistan’s weird national sport is called Buzkashi and all you need for a good game is a few mates that know one end of a horse from the other and a dead goat .:D

Bounty Hunter

ROCKMAN wrote: »

Afghanistan’s weird national sport is called Buzkashi and all you need for a good game is a few mates that know one end of a horse from the other and a dead goat .:D

i cut together a story about that for TransWorldSport once it's awesome... some of the outtakes were freaking hilarious

Mr Maroon

CHD wrote: »

Italy - Diving, closely followed by football

Don't forget defending

gustavo

Latvia - Ice Hockey

Rizzla King

I'd say GAA and football are close together, with domestic interest in viewing the sport obviously going to GAA