The most popular in Sweden

[Den]

It's not a threat it's a fact. Numbers of people from Caucasus and Middle Asia are rising and they do not care about anything other than soccer as far as team sport goes.

It doesn't mean they are all evil or smth. It's just a fact. Southern regions don't care about hockey, and thanks to the heavy migration Moscow cares much less about hockey and much more about soccer in percentage than it was 20 years ago.

The fact that half of Chechnya and Degestan lives in Moscow does not reduce or increase the number of soccer fans in the country; they just move from one part of the country to another.

The fact that there 10 million uzbeks, kirgiz and moldovans working in every single russian town with the population over 10 thnd does not really change the statistics since most of them are not citizens. The number who naturalized and settled is minor comared to the total influx.

It's not serious to blame Moscow's disinterest in hockey on immegaration: look at racial composition of the Moscow soccer fans - all titular ethnicity. Maybe the fact that CSKA and Spartak sucked for 20 years, that Krylya are gone, that all three teams play in barns, has something to do with it.

 

[Garl]

The fact that half of Chechnya and Degestan lives in Moscow does not reduce or increase the number of soccer fans in the country; they just move from one part of the country to another.

The fact that there 10 million uzbeks, kirgiz and moldovans working in every single russian town with the population over 10 thnd does not really change the statistics since most of them are not citizens. The number who naturalized and settled is minor comared to the total influx.

It's not serious to blame Moscow's disinterest in hockey on immegaration: look at racial composition of the Moscow soccer fans - all titular ethnicity. Maybe the fact that CSKA and Spartak sucked for 20 years, that Krylya are gone, that all three teams play in barns, has something to do with it.

That's reasonable. Again, I will not argue against the fact that ethnic russians in general are more intrested in soccer than in other sports combined.

However, it's not just the talk about poeple who go to arenas. In general, when you go around Moscow, 90% of sport bars show soccer. Because that's what people want. All people, not just registered citizens.

 

[Dosing]

Well, it's like to say that mexicans have little to do with the fact that soccer is catching up to hockey in USA.

In Russia it's like this: russians from big cites care mostly about soccer. Russians from hockey regions(Ural/Siberia) care about hockey more than soccer. Not by much though.

Non-russians from southern regions care only about soccer and sometimes various martial arts. And since they are quite numerous and are breeding unlike russians they make overall picture much more heavy towards soccer.

Only football haven't "caught up" to hockey, it's always been bigger. And my point was that the arabs and slavs "breeding" doesn't matter, because most swedes favor football anyways.
Also sorry but it's hard to compare sweden to developing countries, it's a whole different scenario.

 

[Garl]

Only football haven't "caught up" to hockey, it's always been bigger. And my point was that the arabs and slavs "breeding" doesn't matter, because most swedes favor football anyways.
Also sorry but it's hard to compare sweden to developing countries, it's a whole different scenario.

It matters in a way that there is even bigger turn to soccer. Like in US, where the influx of mexicans definately made soccer much more popular on national average. You just can't argue with that.

As for it's hard to compare, what has the developing country to do with it? We are not really developing anywhere

However, I don't think we are that different in this matter. Big cities and majority of the land favor soccer decisively(Moscow, St.Petersbourg), and then there are some hockey regions(sometimes even bandy regions) where hockey is as popular or even more popular than soccer(in Russia it is for example Cherepovets).

 

[Dosing]

It matters in a way that there is even bigger turn to soccer. Like in US, where the influx of mexicans definately made soccer much more popular on national average. You just can't argue with that.

As for it's hard to compare, what has the developing country to do with it? We are not really developing anywhere

However, I don't think we are that different in this matter. Big cities and majority of the land favor soccer decisively(Moscow, St.Petersbourg), and then there are some hockey regions(sometimes even bandy regions) where hockey is as popular or even more popular than soccer(in Russia it is for example Cherepovets).

Foreigners "Hyping" the game up wouldn't elevate the sport, not in sweden anyways. So im sorry again but it's hard to compare with very different countries.
Also what does geographical differences in popularity have to do with it? Hockey is more popular in northern america to but that doesn't mean you can compare how sport popularity works there and in sweden. And thats even after considering sweden being closer to america culturally then we are to the other developing countries.

 

[stv11]

Please keep this thread on topic, if you want to debate how good Zlatan is, you can go to the soccer board.

If more cleanup is needed, infractions will be given.

 

[Shawn Heins 44]

The foreigners has little to do with it, i have met a bunch of real "svenssons" that had no idea who forsberg was. You can probably put a number of skiers between him and zlatan.

Wow really? I know skiing is very popular in Switzerland, but who are you talking about here? Anja Pärsson is retired, there are not so many top 10 skiers from Sweden left (dont want to be mean or anything, just curious - its not like Swiss man have been any good the last year ).

Edit; oh ok, maybe you are referring not only to alpine skiing, which is about 95% of skiing for us in Switzerland.

 

[The Saw Is the Law]

Edit; oh ok, maybe you are referring not only to alpine skiing, which is about 95% of skiing for us in Switzerland.

Yeah. When people talk about "skiing" in Finland, they are always talking about cross-country skiing.

I guess it's because we don't have Alps here

Does anyone have clear numbers how many juniors play soccer / hockey in Sweden?

 

[Shawn Heins 44]

Yeah. When people talk about "skiing" in Finland, they are always talking about cross-country skiing.

I guess it's because we don't have Alps here

Does anyone have clear numbers how many juniors play soccer / hockey in Sweden?

Funny how success changes that! Noone cared about cross-country for decades here, now we have Cologna and he suddenly wins Swiss sport awards over guys like Federer

 

[PuckOut]

Yeah. When people talk about "skiing" in Finland, they are always talking about cross-country skiing.

I guess it's because we don't have Alps here

Does anyone have clear numbers how many juniors play soccer / hockey in Sweden?

I couldnt find that particular number. But the overall participation is something like half a million football players vs 75 000 hockey players.

Another thing is the amount of football club members vs hockey. Football clubs in Sweden have over a million members, hockey clubs just over 100 000.

So in short, expect football to crush hockey in every parameter available.

 

[EK47]

If this was a poll Zlatan would be winning with like 90% of the votes, which is sad because Sweden is terribad at soccer and just because we have Zlatan we delude ourselves into thinking that we're actually good.

 

[pucky]

That's reasonable. Again, I will not argue against the fact that ethnic russians in general are more intrested in soccer than in other sports combined.

However, it's not just the talk about poeple who go to arenas. In general, when you go around Moscow, 90% of sport bars show soccer. Because that's what people want. All people, not just registered citizens.

Only football haven't "caught up" to hockey, it's always been bigger. And my point was that the arabs and slavs "breeding" doesn't matter, because most swedes favor football anyways.
Also sorry but it's hard to compare sweden to developing countries, it's a whole different scenario.

Imho, football (soccer, whatever) sucks compared to hockey. There is no comparison. Football/soccer is just hyped so much in Europe. That is the problem. It's cheaper to play and like someone said, there's more attachment to it. There's more who join up or who go to the games. But, it's an inferior sport. But, when you only need a ball and enough players, it's tough for hockey to compete.

I think, in the past, hockey was miles more popular than soccer in Russia. There was pride to be a fan of hockey in Russia. It's sad what happened. I guess, part of the problem, is so many players going to North America? This situation doesn't really exist for soccer, right?

 

[Franck]

You know how some athletes like Michael Jordan or Wayne Gretzky are so good and so popular that they transcend sports and become cultural phenomenons? In Sweden Zlatan made that transition about 10 years ago. He's the most famous person in the country, more famous than any singer, actor or TV presenter, more famous than both the prime minister and the king.

Honestly, a Swedish hockey player would probably need to be the guy that beats all of Gretzky's records and lead Tre Kronor to multiple Olympic gold medals to reach that level of fame.

If this was a poll Zlatan would be winning with like 90% of the votes, which is sad because Sweden is terribad at soccer and just because we have Zlatan we delude ourselves into thinking that we're actually good.

I hate this kind of argument. It's lazy, dumb, ignorant and disrespectful to all the hard work that has gone in to making us as good as we are.

Sweden, with or without Zlatan, is consistently one of the 15-25 best national teams in the World, in a sport taken seriously by about 200 or so different national teams.
We have a very good national team, admittedly we can't compete with the top 6-7 national teams for silverware but we have a realistic chance of beating them in any given game.

A nation like San Marino is "terribad", Sweden are a long, long way from that. We are very good, and there are a lot of nations out there that are much larger than us who wish they were as good as we are.

Sweden are at about the same level in football as Slovakia or Switzerland are in hockey.

The only hockey player we've got that is widely known in Sweden from NHL is probably Lundqvist, most people knows who he is, both because he's good and that he has his face in some commercials.

Don't underestimate the importance of him having been a star in Elitserien. Just as with Forsberg that has given him a level of familiarity with regular hockey fans that he could build his fame from. He wouldn't be half as famous had he left for North America at 18.

 

[EK47]

I hate this kind of argument. It's lazy, dumb, ignorant and disrespectful to all the hard work that has gone in to making us as good as we are.

Sweden, with or without Zlatan, is consistently one of the 15-25 best national teams in the World, in a sport taken seriously by about 200 or so different national teams.
We have a very good national team, admittedly we can't compete with the top 6-7 national teams for silverware but we have a realistic chance of beating them in any given game.

A nation like San Marino is "terribad", Sweden are a long, long way from that. We are very good, and there are a lot of nations out there that are much larger than us who wish they were as good as we are.

Sweden are at about the same level in football as Slovakia or Switzerland are in hockey.

I agree that "terribad" may have been an excaggeration.

However I do not agree with the bolded. Ten years ago Sweden was a dark horse to win the Euro 2004, just like how Slovakia and Switzerland is dark horses for the olympic gold in Sochi. So in conclusion i don't believe that we're at that level anymore. Today I think that the swedish national soccer team is more like the equivalent of Norway or Denmark in ice hockey.

 

[Jonimaus]

Sweden in football is at a level with Zlatan that on a very good day we can compete with the best (except Germany (well 4-4!) and probably Spain), like Switzerland in hockey. Due to how many countries compete in football tournaments, us winning a tournament in football is more unlikely than Switzerland winning win in hockey though.

 

[Pominville Knows]

Just becouse soccer players are more well known does not make soccer more popular than hockey. Just becouse people knows the name Britney Spears does not make all of them like her music. Strange as it seems we need to disect things quite a bit here. Elitserien is just as popular as Allsvenskan in soccer, that is a fact. People not very interested in sports tends to perhaps know only Zlatan but they still will not watch soccer, but some of them do watch the more entertaining game of hockey at the Worlds. While talking about that, women likes hockey more than soccer. Families goes to hockey more than they do soccer, the middle class likes hockey more than soccer.

These are just a few things disected about the situation. It is possible that soccer more often is att the forefront of the average swede's brainstem than hockey is, becouse of the qualifiers to the World Cup and Euro tournaments while hockey has those hapless Euro Hockey Tour things going on. But no-one can fool me that an Olympic hockey game does not draw comparable although more frenzied fans to their TV:s. Swedes LOVE Tre Kronor, and of course it's harder to learn players names when you get to watch them so little.

 

[Jonimaus]

Just becouse soccer players are more well known does not make soccer more popular than hockey. Just becouse people knows the name Britney Spears does not make all of them like her music. Strange as it seems we need to disect things quite a bit here. Elitserien is just as popular as Allsvenskan in soccer, that is a fact. People not very interested in sports tends to perhaps know only Zlatan but they still will not watch soccer, but some of them do watch the more entertaining game of hockey at the Worlds. While talking about that, women likes hockey more than soccer. Families goes to hockey more than they do soccer, the middle class likes hockey more than soccer.

These are just a few things disected about the situation. It is possible that soccer more often is att the forefront of the average swede's brainstem than hockey is, becouse of the qualifiers to the World Cup and Euro tournaments while hockey has those hapless Euro Hockey Tour things going on. But no-one can fool me that an Olympic hockey game does not draw comparable although more frenzied fans to their TV:s. Swedes LOVE Tre Kronor, and of course it's harder to learn players names when you get to watch them so little.

Considering it's you, I am not surprised about the content of this post. You're the only one here who would ever argue that hockey is as popular as football in Sweden. Isn't it tiering to be told by everyone in the swedish section that you're wrong? It's happening everytime you post.

Since you're only comparing elitserien and allsvenskan (where allsvenskan already wins), shows how clueless you are. If you were actually swedish (you're not) living in Sweden (you're not) you'd know that media reports more about european football than allsvenskan itself. And don't go typing now "media doesn't know what is more popular", well holy **** swedish media must do some bad bussiness covering 7ish football leagues and covering only 2 hockey leagues (their minimal monthly report of NHL doesn't count).

You're post is so biased it's hard to take you seriously even for a second. You put your own flawed opinions down as facts "Elitserien is just as popular as Allsvenskan in soccer, that is a fact." "but some of them do watch the more entertaining game of hockey at the Worlds." And especially "While talking about that, women likes hockey more than soccer. Families goes to hockey more than they do soccer, the middle class likes hockey more than soccer." What the **** is this? If you post something that stupid you've got to back it up with reliable sources.

Oh and the best part, yet again, pretty much every swede is more or less agreeing with one another, except you.

 

[Shawn Heins 44]

Sweden in football is at a level with Zlatan that on a very good day we can compete with the best (except Germany (well 4-4!) and probably Spain), like Switzerland in hockey. Due to how many countries compete in football tournaments, us winning a tournament in football is more unlikely than Switzerland winning win in hockey though.

True, to be honest, Sweden is quite far away from having success as a national team. They have their best years behind them and the current roster is getting quite old (at least the core).
Dont get me wrong, I love all Swedish national teams (have a hockey and soccer jersey) but at the moment Sweden is not really good...

 

[Pominville Knows]

Considering it's you, I am not surprised about the content of this post. You're the only one here who would ever argue that hockey is as popular as football in Sweden. Isn't it tiering to be told by everyone in the swedish section that you're wrong? It's happening everytime you post.

Since you're only comparing elitserien and allsvenskan (where allsvenskan already wins), shows how clueless you are. If you were actually swedish (you're not) living in Sweden (you're not) you'd know that media reports more about european football than allsvenskan itself. And don't go typing now "media doesn't know what is more popular", well holy **** swedish media must do some bad bussiness covering 7ish football leagues and covering only 2 hockey leagues (their minimal monthly report of NHL doesn't count).

You're post is so biased it's hard to take you seriously even for a second. You put your own flawed opinions down as facts "Elitserien is just as popular as Allsvenskan in soccer, that is a fact." "but some of them do watch the more entertaining game of hockey at the Worlds." And especially "While talking about that, women likes hockey more than soccer. Families goes to hockey more than they do soccer, the middle class likes hockey more than soccer." What the **** is this? If you post something that stupid you've got to back it up with reliable sources.

Oh and the best part, yet again, pretty much every swede is more or less agreeing with one another, except you.

No swede eh? If you'd like we can go to a Frölunda game together, if you're near Gothenburg. Not that i actually want to meet you, since i see you still love using laughing smileys in a very disregarding way, matching your language most fowl. Still only using claims of your own to counter mine. Bring some numbers, that is better if you dont agree with me.

 

[romelson]

Ingemar Stenmark is the greatest.

 

[Jonimaus]

No swede eh? If you'd like we can go to a Frölunda game together, if you're near Gothenburg. Not that i actually want to meet you, since i see you still love using laughing smileys in a very disregarding way, matching your language most fowl. Still only using claims of your own to counter mine. Bring some numbers, that is better if you dont agree with me.

Considering you ended up with no valid sources or any real numbers, is it fair to call ******** yet?

 

[Dosing]

True, to be honest, Sweden is quite far away from having success as a national team. They have their best years behind them and the current roster is getting quite old (at least the core).
Dont get me wrong, I love all Swedish national teams (have a hockey and soccer jersey) but at the moment Sweden is not really good...

Yea we are definitely not were we want to be atm. Imo we need a new henke larsson that can pass zlatan the ball. And maybe a ljungberg or 2 ;p

 

[Jonimaus]

Yea we are definitely not were we want to be atm. Imo we need a new henke larsson to pass zlatan the ball. And maybe a ljungberg or 2 ;p

With a couple of Mellbergs we'd be in this WC. He'd never decide to "hey let's not cover Ronaldo!"

 

[Pominville Knows]

Considering you ended up with no valid sources or any real numbers, is it fair to call ******** yet?

No becouse you did not do so either. Considering this you just cant use the rethoric you use without being seen as an internet tough guy. Bring your comparisons or no-ones point is a definite, that is something that both you and i will have to accept. Unfortunately my keyboard is blown so even this short a message is a grind, and this matter is very complex.

 

[aloonda*]

No swede eh? If you'd like we can go to a Frölunda game together, if you're near Gothenburg. Not that i actually want to meet you, since i see you still love using laughing smileys in a very disregarding way, matching your language most fowl. Still only using claims of your own to counter mine. Bring some numbers, that is better if you dont agree with me.

would love to go to a frolunda game with you

this whole thread makes me sad----sweden more interested in soccer than hockey? what in the world?