Quick: What sport do more Canadians play than any other? Those who said “soccer” can go to the head of the class.

The numbers are actually staggering, even to someone like me who plays the game twice a week (once a week indoors and, in the summer, once a week outdoors, as well) and has two other soccer players in the house.

We have 800,000 soccer players in Canada — approximately forty per cent are women (that’s just the players who are registered). And even with women taking up hockey in far greater numbers and the popularity of summer roller hockey leagues, Canada’s so-called national sport doesn’t come close in terms of participation – making soccer — by the only measure that really counts — Canada’s national sport.

Why?

Firstly, it can be played at any level, from the fast-paced ball control game played by professionals, to the “herd and run after the ball” technique enjoyed by five-year-old soccer fun registrants. To play hockey, children must first learn to skate, which, for most, is much harder than learning to run.

Expense is a major factor when deciding what activities children will take part in. And cleats and shin pads are the only equipment parents have to purchase to outfit their kids for soccer, while a complete set of hockey equipment every few years can require them to take out a second mortgage.

Perhaps most importantly, Canadian society is becoming far less homogeneous, as the legacy of progressive immigration policies and multiculturalism is felt more profoundly. People who grew up playing and watching soccer (or “football” as most of the world calls it) are more likely to follow it and continue to play it, than those with little previous contact with the game.

The Globe and Mail quoted Reezwan Charania, who grew up in Nairobi: “In Kenya, we played even if we didn’t have a ball. We made one out of plastic bags and a rope. The whole world plays soccer. Ask a Kenyan what’s ice hockey and he’ll have no clue.”

The recent street celebrations (or cancelled street celebrations) by Canadians of Korean, Italian or Brazilian descent are just a small taste of the frenzy probably occurring in their former countries. In Moscow, soccer fans rioted in the streets when their team lost. Argentina’s government had reportedly been hoping that a good showing by their national team would distract citizens from the disastrous state of their economy — they weren’t that lucky.

A European Union summit was actually delayed until the end of the England-Brazil match. When British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, emerged from the meetings, the first question he took from a reporter was not about politics, but about England’s loss on the World Cup soccer pitch. “We are all devastated, of course we are,” he admitted. Even United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan offered his opinion on the results coming in from Korea and Japan.

Referring to victories by countries such as Senegal, Annan noted that “it is a World Cup of the underdogs, it seems to me. So there is hope for all of us underdogs.”

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) announced last week that, in the first two weeks of the tournament, its Website had received over one billion hits — more than three times the number of visits the Olympic Games Website received during the Salt Lake City games – prime time TV coverage across North America and all. “Football, more than any other factor, has enveloped whole regions, people and nations”, said FIFA in its press release. “With approximately 200 million active players it now constitutes a substantial chunk of the leisure industry, having opened up new markets for itself and for the rest of the business world.”

Unlike other so-called “world championships” (like baseball), soccer is actually played and watched (by over a billion people) throughout the world. But North Americans are just catching on. Over eight million Americans burned the midnight oil to watch their team beat Mexico. And more than one hundred million American tune into the snoozefest known as the Superbowl.

Not ranking high enough, Canada is not at the World Cup. But is bidding to host the next World Cup played in the Americas and, if successful, that should stimulate Canadian interest in the game.

More than anything, however, Canadian interest in the game will continue to grow by leaps and bounds when parents and grandparents go to watch their children play.

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Scott Piatkowski

Scott Piatkowski is a former columnist for rabble.ca. He wrote a weekly column for 13 years that appeared in the Waterloo Chronicle, the Woolwich Observer and ECHO Weekly. He has also written for Straight...