Why football is people’s most favourite game

Football has a simple set of rules compared to other games such as cricket and tennis. Whereas some have difficulty in understanding the offside rule, football is very simple to understand.

It is a feast to the eyes. The dribbling, passing, sliding tackles, heading, offside, fouls, free kicks, penalties, saves, everything comes packaged with beauty in it. It keeps our hearts longing for more.

Football is a fast paced and beautiful game. There are others games like basketball or hockey. But when you see football being played with teams like Barcelona, you get the feeling that it is a sport of its own kind.

When it’s the Catalans, as Barca fans call them, they won’t just pass the ball. They caress it. They wear the opponents down with simple but very fast one touch passes. Their strength lies in their possession.

When they lose the ball, they go hunting for it like a pack of wolves. They like it when it is within their legs.

As a fan, you have the entire field in front of you and as the ball moves from one player to another, people feel a kind of tension building. And it only ends when either a goal is scored or the attack is cut short.

Football is easily accessible and affordable. To play it, all you need is a ball, which can be made from rags, and at least another willing soul and an open space.

It’s played in any weather, be it sunny, rainfall, snowfall, the game goes on. It's a very entertaining game to watch or to play.

The wise have it that if you place a ball in front of a child who has just learnt to walk, their first instinct would be to kick it.

Football has a fixed timeline and it is very short which makes viewers to be actively involved in it all the time and they can get back to their regular activities after that. People can easily find time for football in their busy schedule.

The game has always been responsible for producing such great fashionistas who inspire different generations to continuously experiment in terms of how they look.

Everybody wants to have the hairstyles that Mario Balotelli or Cristiano Ronaldo have. Even the ridiculous frontal tuft of the Brazilian Ronaldo was copied to the limit.

It is electrifying. It leaves the fans with a feeling that gets them into idolizing those they love on the pitch. After all, the game is less discriminatory as compared to other sports. As long as one has the talent and willingness to learn, he or she will play football.

Everyone feels like they have a chance. Mixed martial arts has a similar appeal due to how there is so many ways to lose, but football manages to do this without mashing up all different fighting styles.

Compare it with Rugby and you will discover that if you are not well built physically, your chances are limited.

Basketball is worse, if you are not tall and well-built; your dream of becoming a basketball player is invalid- contrary to Oscar star Lupita Nyongo’s declaration.

Football goal celebrations are always exciting. You can see samba dance, dancing robots, back flips, cartwheels and so on. Hardly any other game offers this.

Football has many large stadia all over the world that can hold as many as 99,354. No other game comes closer.

It is the most watched game in the world after all. FIFA World cup final is watched by an estimated 600 million people and the annual Champions League final by more than 300 million.

To cap it all, it draws more members than the United Nations. It will always be people’s favourite.

No wonder sometimes, love has to wait, supper time has to be postponed and homework ignored until the 90 minutes showpiece is over.