The Global Game: 270 Million Participate in Football

According to the latest numbers from FIFA, 4% of the world’s population – 270 million people in total – participate in football as players, referees, coaches and other officials. So how do the other 96% spend their time?

The numbers show that there are 10% more people playing football around the world than there were six years ago with the greatest growth in the number of women who wear shorts and chase after a ball. By region, the greatest number of participants hail from Asia, which only makes sense since it is the continent with the most number of people.

Asia – 85 million
Europe – 62 million
Africa – 46 million
North and Central America – 43 million
South America – 27 million
Oceania – .5 million

There are now over 300,000 clubs and 1.7 million football teams in the world, which means that American Samoa is not 1.7 millionth in the global world rankings. If you throw in people who get their football fix by merely watching other people running around a pitch kicking a ball, the sport’s reach is in the billions.

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Category: World Football