Other Popular Sports
Although football is almost universally popular, different countries have varying views of what makes for a preferred sport. Perhaps the most obvious example of other popular sports is the USA. There, football has to be called soccer to distinguish it from the much more popular American football, a game actually played with the hands more than the feet.
In the Indian subcontinent, cricket is the king (perhaps followed by squash) and even in the UK it is noticeable that youngsters of south Asian ethnic background are significantly underrepresented in football teams. The reason is not so much that they dislike football or that they are racially excluded: they just much prefer cricket instead.
Sports even older than football are athletics, especially on track and field, and events such as the Olympic Games command huge audiences. These athletic contests often had their origins in warfare (e.g. throwing the javelin or wrestling) and often acted as a substitute for the real thing.
Other ball games such as tennis and golf are also very popular both to view and to play, and some of them can be played fairly competitively into older age whereas this is relatively difficult in contact sports such as football or rugby.
There are also a number of other activities that can be classified as popular sports, even if they are not done competitively. Some examples are fishing, sailing, swimming, horse riding and snooker, to mention but a few of them, and the number of participants often exceeds those involved directly in playing football.
