Why An International (American) Football Competition Would Be Difficult

Football is a great sport. It requires athleticism, technique, vision and grit. For those who do not understand the sport, it may seem difficult to follow. But when you understand the flow and intricacies of the sport, you appreciate football’s amazing qualities.

I am, of course, talking about American football. A clarification for the pedants who insist on repeating the tired “soccer is real football” line. Soccer is my favorite sport, and I wish it had always been America’s top sport. But the reasoning behind why America calls the two sports soccer and football are clear if one does a bit of research.

But more importantly, (American) football is a sport that is now the most popular in the United States, is quite big in Canada and Mexico, and is growing in Europe. Not that Americans care if foreigners like our favorite sports. Foreigners’ need to give unsolicited remarks on the popularity of football compared to soccer illustrates an insecurity and malice towards America that is thankfully not reciprocated by Americans.

I don’t much care if a serious international football competition ever arises. The NFL and college football are more than enough. For obvious reasons of popularity and history, no nation, not even Canada, will any time soon offer a worthwhile challenge to the US in an international football competition made up of anything besides amateurs.

There are international American football competitions, but they are made up of amateur teams. For the purposes of argument, I am focusing on a hypothetical competition of international football, in which there is enough competition to warrant top players playing. This hypothetical would be many decades away, if ever feasible.

The roadblocks to such a competition, even if other nations did have teams worthy of competing with, is simply the number of football games that are possible for players to participate in. Football takes too much out of one’s body for a player to play more than the 17 game season and possible playoffs that the NFL provides. Even now, there are calls for shortening the NFL season, for player safety.

Those calls are completely reasonable. So having an international competition would be almost impossible. And this would hold true even in a scenario where football was popular world wide and there was an appetite to see national teams square off in the sport.

There would be no chance of qualifiers for a World Championship of the sport. Even in a scenario where every nation loved football, there would be no chance that Tom Brady would travel to El Salvador to play their national team on the gridiron. The only thing worth discussing would be a format akin to hockey. That is where a group of the clear top nations in the sport automatically qualify for the World Championship.

But even if that did happen, and the competition was limited to 10 countries, it would be logistically almost impossible. Such a format would see 2 groups of 5, meaning 4 games at least. To limit games the most, you’d have the winners of each group play in the final. That would still be 5 games, over a 6 week period (one bye week per team).

Even that would be difficult, as it would be possible that after a group stage, two or more teams would be tied. But what’s more, even that would likely be too long, and too many games, for the players. The now 17 game regular season plus playoffs in the NFL already is pushing players past their physical limits.

The only feasible format would be straight knockout. 16 teams at most, as that would lead to 4 games at most for the finalists. But maybe simply an 8 team knockout format, for 3 games at most. But even if this competition were once every 4 years, the World Championship year would simply be an overload.

There would be legal issues concerning NFL teams and players based on possible injuries. The reason why constant international competition is possible in soccer is because FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, foots the bill for possible injuries to important club players. FIFA is only able to do this because the revenue they bring in is enormous. International American football competition could never bring in the amount of revenue that would allow their version of FIFA to be able to foot the liability bill in the way FIFA does.

The fact that serious international (American) football will likely never be big international sports is completely fine. It is inherently a more domestic American sport. The US knows that it is the most successful sporting nation, and doesn’t care if other nations like our sports or not. Despite our lack of care, American football’s popularity around the world continues to grow.

As the popularity of the NFL rises in Europe and other countries, the NFL will have a bigger fan market. NFL games in London are always hugely successful. There is no need for international football competitions. International fans of the sport get more than enough from watching the NFL and college football. Not all sports need to be widely played internationally to be great. May American football continue to grow!