Even though soccer is arguably the biggest sport in the world when it comes to the number of fans, a lot of people claim that soccer is extremely overrated and boring.
But is that really the case?
The answer to this question is definitely subjective. It all depends on what you prefer and what your definition of “entertaining” is.
In this article, I will be giving out my honest opinion of whether I think soccer is boring/overrated or not, and I will also be addressing some of the reasons why many people who don’t know a lot about soccer think that the game is overrated.
Is soccer really boring and overrated?
There are a lot of soccer games and soccer leagues that are considered very boring and overrated even by hardcore soccer fans. On the other hand, there are soccer games that are still remembered up to this date as some of the most entertaining sports games in the modern era.
I personally believe that soccer by itself is not boring nor overrated at all. A soccer game with the current rules and regulations can be extremely fun to watch if some conditions are met.
However, that doesn’t mean that all soccer games are entertaining. In fact, I think that a lot of games are very boring, and I heard many hard core soccer fans say the same thing.
Even soccer club owners have expressed some concerns about the fact that a lot of soccer games are boring and overrated.
Florentino Perez, who is Real Madrid’s president, claimed that changes need to be made to soccer in order to appeal to the younger generations.
The president of one of the biggest soccer clubs in history stated that he himself can’t continue watching some soccer matches.
Perez and some other presidents have proposed a new soccer league called “The super league”. This new soccer league was meant to increase the number of entertaining soccer matches by putting all the elite European soccer clubs together in a single league.
While the first attempt of creating a super league for the elite clubs have failed miserably, the founders of the super league idea are still determined to create such a league in the near future.
If you want to learn more about what the soccer leagues are in general, you can check this article.
The whole point from all this is that there are a lot of soccer games that can be considered boring or overrated. Even big soccer club owners admit this and are trying to make some changes to keep growing the world wide interest in soccer.
But again, does this mean that soccer in itself is boring? I personally think that it is not.
In my opinion, it all boils down to the soccer game that you are watching, and to the context behind the game itself.
There are soccer games that are still carved in my memory up to this date. These games are worth watching, and these games are frequent too.
It’s not like you get a few great soccer matches per year and that’s it. There are a lot of extremely entertaining soccer matches that are taking place around the world. You just have to figure out which soccer games to watch.
Why do some people view soccer as boring and overrated?
We know that a lot of people think that soccer is overrated and boring, but why is this the case? Is it because soccer is ACTUALLY overrated? Or is it because the limited knowledge that some people have about soccer led them to believe that the game is overrated?
Here are the reasons that I believe have contributed to making some people think that soccer by itself is a boring sport:
- The flopping and the dramatic actions that many soccer players are well known for.
- The low number of goals per game.
- The large number of official soccer games around the world.
I will briefly go over each of these points. Here we go:
Flopping and dramatic actions.
Soccer players are well known for their exaggeration when it comes to injuries. It is worth mentioning that flopping is not widespread across the soccer world. For example, men’s soccer has much more flopping than women’s soccer.
So in other words, soccer by itself doesn’t encourage flopping. However, flopping is still a thing because the rules aren’t strict enough.
In general, the extensive flopping has given soccer a very bad reputation among the people who don’t know a lot about the game.
It’s true that flopping can affect a soccer game. However, I believe that one should not judge the whole sport based on such a tiny portion of it.
Let’s all hope to see some big changes to the way soccer players get punished when they fake their injuries. But until then, I still believe that soccer shouldn’t be judged solely on the bad actions of some of its players.
If you want to read more about the reason behind the dramatic actions of some soccer players, then this article is for you.
Low number of goals per game.
There is no doubt that having more goals in a game can increase the entertainment level of the game, but soccer is not always about scoring goals.
Soccer fans enjoy the build ups to the goals, and they enjoy the constant suspense during a soccer game.
The fans enjoy the tactics used by the coaches, the brilliant tackles by some soccer defenders, and the awesome individual and group effort by the players on the field.
In my opinion, a soccer game doesn’t have to have a lot of goals for it to be entertaining. There are soccer games that end with a single goal and yet they are more entertaining than games that end with a much larger number of goals.
So it all boils down to personal preference here. If you only enjoy watching the scoreboard constantly changing, then there is a large chance that you view soccer as a boring sport.
However if you enjoy the brilliant scoring attempts during a soccer game, then soccer is the sport for you.
Large number of soccer games around the world.
Soccer is a world wide sport, which means that you will find an abundance of live soccer games happening around the world at any given moment.
The problem is that most of these soccer games can be boring because the competing teams aren’t good enough.
Even the world cup, which is arguably the most watched sports event in the world, has some extremely boring soccer games between countries that aren’t good enough in soccer.
When a person is gaining some interest in soccer, they are very likely to watch some random soccer game that is considered boring by even hard core soccer fans.
This person might get the impression that soccer is overrated in general because of this single game or because of a number of boring soccer games that they have watched.
In other words, since there are a high number of non-competitive soccer games taking place all over the world, it’s easy for any person to think that soccer is boring in general because of these matches.
I personally believe that if the people who are showing some interest in soccer start by watching some of the most competitive soccer games, then there is a high chance that they won’t view soccer as overrated or boring.
The problem is, as a new soccer fan, it can be hard to identify what games are competitive and what games are not. One thing that you can do is go ask on online forums about the upcoming world class soccer games and start by watching these games.
If you don’t like these games, then soccer might not be the sport for you.
I will end this section here. If you are interested, you can check these tips and tricks that can help you enjoy watching soccer games more. You can also read about my 11 reasons of why I think soccer is fun to watch.
CONCLUSION
I personally believe that the backbone of soccer are the fans and the communities behind the soccer teams around the world.
People love to go watch their favorite soccer team together as a community even if their team is not performing well on the field.
In other words, there is more to soccer than just watching teams score goals, and this is what makes soccer entertaining and what makes it “the beautiful game”.
It’s true that there are a lot of boring soccer games, but this doesn’t mean that soccer by itself is boring in general.
If you are a new soccer fan, go watch the world class soccer games, and only then decide whether soccer is worth your time or not.