The Popularity of Football and Soccer - Essay Example

FIFA also organizes football at the professional and international levels. The American National Football League is extremely popular as it is the chief professional League in the world. On par with it is Major League Soccer. The commonalities shared between the two games are that each team should be made up of eleven players and requires using their legs and heads with great skill to score a goal into the opponents defending aside. The major differences between the two games are the size of the playing field.

For soccer, it is 90 and 120 m long and between 45 and 90 m wide, and for American football is 120 yds long and 53 yds 1 ft wide. Another unique specification is the ball used in the game. Soccer makes use of around leather ball that measures 68 and 71 cm in circumference, and weighs between 396 to 453 g, while in American football an extended spheroid with a circumference of 28.5 in and weighs about 14 to 15 oz. The other major differences are the use of uniforms and different ways of passing judgment.

Soccer becomes all the more exciting because fans have much closer or direct contact with their stars, unlike football which is more protected. The time duration varies with soccer having two 45 minute halves with an intermission of 15 minutes in between, whereas in football the game consists of four quarters comprising of 15 minutes each. Though both these games are loved the world over and played with much enthusiasm, soccer seems to be a notch more popular than football.