Has football finally cracked the American market?

euronews (in English)

With superstar signings, sold-out stadiums, and unprecedented international interest, football has finally gained mainstream acceptance in America.

Transcript

00:00Football or soccer as it is known stateside is the fastest rising sport in

00:05America. The popularity is thanks to the upcoming FIFA World Cup and an influx of

00:11global star players. So what does this mean for the future of the game in

00:15America?

00:20Hello and welcome to Football Now. Football in the USA is more popular than

00:28ever. American football, baseball and basketball have all ruled the roost for

00:33so long but now interest in soccer has grown leaps and bounds thanks to the

00:38help of a younger generation of fans. You know the one thing that always comes to

00:43mind you know when you think about you know say English football for instance

00:46you know I really learned the culture of the game and really the fabric of the

00:49game when I was playing in England for the for the eight years that I played

00:52over there but what I realized there you know especially Captain Watford you know

00:56we all have badges on our chests and they all have a number of when that

00:59club was started and so you know when you walk out Watford it said 1881 on

01:03the badge. So if you think about almost a hundred years of history culture all

01:07those things that really come along with the beautiful game you know America

01:11North America for instance was was far behind and so I think it took us a bit

01:15to not only just start to understand the culture of the game understand the

01:18fabric of what this game is that everywhere else in the world seemed to

01:22understand but now the US and Canada and these in the North American cultures are

01:26starting to catch up and I think that's the biggest thing I think really you

01:30got to learn the culture of the game you have to learn what the fabric of this

01:33beautiful game is before you can really give it a go before you can really sit

01:36in those terraces and know what you're doing all those pieces are the reasons

01:40why the growth is now finally starting to to become something that the world

01:44can pay attention to. Well no doubt another reason for the boom in

01:49popularity is the arrival of star players into the MLS. The whole world

01:54watch World Cup hero Lionel Messi signed for Inter Miami just one year ago so is

02:01his arrival a sign of greater growth to come for football in America. He has just

02:07taken it you know turbocharged it really because you know the crowds you're

02:11getting for games evolving into Miami fans are turning out everywhere to see

02:16him. He's generating a lot of interest in the television product that MLS has

02:21created with Apple so Messi's front and center on all the promotion for that. I

02:26think David Beckham did a lot of the groundwork for him who's now of course

02:29owner of Inter Miami, co-owner of Inter Miami. In terms of Beckham was the guy

02:33who went out on all the talk shows at the night and sort of built interest in

02:38the game amongst the broader population. We don't see Messi doing that he's not

02:42comfortable speaking in English he doesn't like doing those kind of shows

02:45but he's put it on the show on the field and I think it is generating another

02:52tier of interest. We'll see you know what impact that has when we look back on it

02:57in a few years. Well an increase in interest has also triggered suggestions

03:02of bringing more top-level football to the USA. Premier League chief executive

03:07Richard Masters said recently that the door looks ajar for bringing regular

03:11season fixtures to America. The league have tried to do this before announcing

03:16plans for a 39th game in the US back in 2008 only for it to be scrapped after a

03:22big backlash from fans. Javier Tabas, the president of La Liga has given the green

03:28light for Spanish games to be played across the pond. This could happen as

03:32soon as 2025. Javier Tabas is always a few steps ahead in terms of trying to

03:38modernize the league trying to bring in as much revenue and much money as

03:42possible because in his mind it's all about competing with the Premier League

03:45and financially there's a huge gap and let's be honest I'm not sure that any

03:48league can actually either compete or catch up with the Premier League. I

03:52understand from a business point of view why he could see the appeal it's a

03:58growing market when it comes to football there's a lot of money there but from a

04:02football point of view I think it's really unfair and I do think it

04:06disrupts the integrity of the competition because for me either you do

04:10it with everyone or you don't do it at all. You can't just pick one game most

04:14likely classical with Real Madrid or Barcelona or a game in which either

04:19Real Madrid or Barcelona are involved really is unfair to everybody else

04:24because at the end of the day this is a money-making exercise. It's definitely

04:28not a very welcome idea at this stage by many and most people in the football

04:32industry in Spain. Now American television network NBC say that Premier

04:38League games in America is something they will continue to push for knowing

04:42the audience in the country is bigger than ever but with the MLS also in the

04:47best shape it's ever been will the introduction of games from abroad halt

04:52the progress of the country's own Football League? I don't think having

04:57regular season Premier League or La Liga matches would help local football I don't

05:02really see how that could help raise that floor that we've been talking about

05:06about developing young players maybe you have a young boy who his dream is to see

05:12a match and he sees him and he decides to start training harder and gets linked

05:16with his local MLS Academy and eventually goes to the chain but to me

05:19it seems like the momentum is there for Major League Soccer right now

05:23commercially with the arrival of Lionel Messi with some of the innovative deals

05:27that they've done with their television rights and some of the other things it

05:30seems like the league is taking risks that are that are paying off for now to

05:34me it does seem like it might be a risk for MLS and for other local soccer

05:39leagues where some of that momentum that's really building toward the World

05:43Cup could be halted at just the wrong time. An interesting time for football in

05:48America then as the audience for the sport continues to grow to levels never

05:52seen before let us know your thoughts using the hashtag football now USA

05:57that's all we have time for from our studio here in Doha we'll see you next

06:02time bye for now

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