In 2010 the World Cup is going to be held in South Africa, but good luck if you plan on getting tickets.  Apart from their large cost ($80-$600) tickets normally sell out before anyone has a chance to buy them.  Ticket scalpers sometimes buy large quantities of tickets to sell for inflated prices, for example during the last World Cup one ticket sold for $6,000.

Scalping does not, however, account for how quickly all the tickets sell.  There is a simpler reason: out of the 254 countries (this number is often disputed, and includes colonies and areas like the Vatican as countries), 208 of these countries are registered in FIFA, the international soccer organization - that is approximately 82 percent of the world's countries who are enthusiastic enough about soccer to have their own team.  The result is a clamouring for the next World Cup tickets while the current World Cup is still going. 

If you ever watch a soccer game on ESPN or with other American commentators, it might just be the least exciting thing you'll ever watch, but that is the fault of the commentators' lack of enthusiasm and not the sport.  As proof of this assertion, try watching a soccer match on the Univision or Telemundo or BBC Sport.  The energy the commentators throw into the game is in stark contrast to the drab way we Americans present soccer games. It makes the game much more interesting, especially if you don't speak Spanish.  The reason why I think soccer is so popular is that it involves a handicap.  This is the same reason it's so fun to try and play P.E. volleyball using just your elbows.
 
With soccer, unless you're the goalie, use of hands is prohibited, making it a frenzy for the ball using only your feet, forcing the players to go against their instinctual reactions of reaching for the ball.  In addition to this, the handicap also causes the players to develop substitutes to the high hits of hands, using such techniques as violently thrusting your head at the ball, profoundly named a "header".  A handicap alone does not make a game good, for example, mini-golf is by far the least interesting sport to watch even though you can only hit the ball with your club. 

Soccer is unique in the sense that the action really never stops.  The ball is always in play and when it is not, it is promptly thrown back into play to keep things interesting.  It is in this way that soccer has had a massive fan base for the last century.  Now let's talk soccer history.  About 2,000 years ago, the Chinese developed a game somewhat similar to soccer, and the ancient Greeks and Romans did as well.  Soccer as it is currently known gained popularity in the English countryside and the first standardization of the rules occurred in 1863.  In 1938, Soccer was almost exactly the same as it is today.  Through the great world wars and heavy colonization, the game of soccer was spread throughout the world.  For more information on soccer and its history, visit www.fifa.com/classicfootball/history/index.html.

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