It may be the World Cup, but how global is the "world game"?

Article originally published in 'The Conversation', June 11, 2014: In 1863, the newly formed English Football Association (FA) drew up and published the first Laws of the Game of football. The aim was to provide a set of universal rules to govern the various forms of "football" that existed. But it is unlikely that these early lawmakers would have predicted that 150 years later the sport would become a global behemoth. The game's world governing body, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), claims that 46% of the global population" or 3.2 billion viewers" watched at least one minute of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. English club Manchester United has suggested that they are followed by around one in ten people globally. While such claims need to be taken with a pinch of salt, football's worldwide appeal is clear. It is not just off the pitch that football seems to be scoring goals. FIFA's Big Count survey suggests that 270 million people are involved in playing or officiating the sport. This figure has grown by 9.5% since the last (FIFA-conducted) survey, and probably carries more weight than the previously cited numbers.