In my previous post I talked about how the United States of America has all the factors that would have made a great footballing nation. Today, I will be talking about the reason why it is not.

The Average Income

I will start with a contradiction to what I wrote previously. The average is in fact high in the USA which is something that usually increases a nation's chance of having a great football team. However, that factor is the reason Americans choose to go to universities and colleges instead. That part puts them behind in terms of football experience compared to their counterparts.

The MLS Draft

The professional system in American Football and Basketball is the same as it is in football. You go to college, play football with the college team until it's draft time and you get picked by a professional football team.

The difference is, in the first two, Americans are either so far ahead in terms of talent or they're the only ones playing that sport.

Let's just say around the time Neymar turned 18, someone just as talented turned 18 in the USA. By the time the American talent graduates, he'd be 22 on average. By the time the American student graduates, Neymar would be already in Barcelona. Comparing those two based on football experience would be like playing against Neymar in a 5v5 match with friends.

College students between 18 and 22 years old would be training for only 5 months a year. That is half the average of professional players. And their only way to gain experience is facing players who also train 5 months a year.

Political Influencers

That sounds like a crazy reason, but hear me out.

There is a long story behind this, but for the longest time, football was considered the favorite sport for Commies. That is according to Beau Dure in his book "Why the U.S. Men Will Never Win the World Cup: A Historical and Cultural Reality Check". While by the end of this series you will see that I disagree with Dure in his conclusion, he does have a point when it comes to the historical and cultural aspects.

As a dedicated American film, tv, and night shows watcher I often see how football is ridiculed. Yes, football is the second most played sport in the US at in early age, but, it's still a mocked profession to chase. It's also not as luxurious, which leads me to my next reason.

Economy Influencers

American Football and Basketball have more break times and stoppage times. That leaves room for more advertisements. That is why, despite the Premier League being much more popular worldwide, it makes 2.3 billion a year in revenue, while the NFL makes 12.2 billion.

Football is simply not an attractive sport for advertisers in the USA. You can only advertise in football before, after, and in between the match. The first two are often avoided. Meanwhile, in Basketball you get 4 quarters, so even when pre and post-match are avoided. Your ad would still be seen three times as much.

So, it is not for the economical influencers' benefit that Football becomes the country's most popular sport. All of these reasons lead to our fourth and final reason.

Low Infrastructure Expenditure

First, Americans can't spend money to import European experiences into their youth levels. Yes, they might have all the talents in the world. But, they still lack the appropriate guidance for those talents.

Second, Americans don't have the money to spend organizing tournaments that would have allowed their youth-level players to match up against youth clubs in South America, or Europe.

Third, even locally, it's impossible to set up such leagues and tournaments for the youth level as there would be a lot of expensive travel fees.

In Conclusion

It's not that Americans hate football. But there are economic and geographical reasons making it hard for them to compete against other sports. The result that is every time the USA men's team faces a top team, or even mid-tier, we realist that the USA still has a long way to go. That ends up in a depressing place that leads Americans to get back into their comfort zone of watching the sports they excel at.

However, all of that began to change in 2007. But, that will be addressed in the last part when it comes to this series.