It's interesting that the most powerful country in the world is only marginally, if at all, involved in the three most popular team sports in the world: football, cricket and, increasingly, rugby.
Why is that? Off the top of my head, I can think of two reasons:
- A "top dog" nation tends to be sufficient unto itself. It doesn't feel the need to measure itself against lesser mortals in the international arena. It was only in the fifties and sixties that British football very reluctantly started to take an interest in the European scene. The defining event here was probably England's humiliating defeat at the hands of Ferenc Puskas and the Hungarians in 1953.
- But that is only part of the story. Why is it that the most popular sports in the US (baseball, basketball and American football) are not actually all that popular outside the US? I think the answer to that question is bound up with the fact that America, unlike Britain, has never been an imperial power. We British exported our sports to all parts of the world. America missed the bus on this one.
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