Football Religion

Christianity, with more than 2 billion believers, ranks second among the major religions of the world.
Soccer is first. FIFA, the guardians of the faith, calculated that a cumulative television audience of 28.8 billion people tuned in to watch the 2002 World Cup tournament. Keep in mind that the world's total population is only 6.6 billion
Hello I am one of the biggest football fan in the world. And I am here to show you how football is synonyms to any religion in the world. I will be telling you about the customs, rituals, the gods, the holly places and the like of football a.k.a. soccer and how they are some what of same nature as the ones practiced in some of the world’s major religions like Christianity and Islam.
Like Hinduism, football has many gods. If we take Arsenal FC for instance the striker god of all time is Henry, the Mid field god was Vieria but now its Fabregas, the defensive god has to be Tony Adams. Its not just arsenal FC, every FC and every national team has its own gods. Few people wear the vestments of their favourite molana or priest as compared to the jerseys worn by the fans of their favourite player.

Football provides the ritual of a weekend gathering for those who are truly committed. Fewer people visit churches on Friday as compared to the the fans that go to the Mecca of Football ‘the football stadium’.

Football has its own mythology too, those stories that believers tell to explain their identity and history and every club or nation has got one. It even has its own book in which all the rules are written. And like any religion the love of the game is passed through generations. If my father supported a team I am automatically put into the hierarchy of followers when I am born.

Extremism also exists in the religion of football, and the extremists are known as the hooligans. Fans use the mean of violence to show there love for the team. They can be viewed as the jihadis, fighting the rival team supporters for the pride of their team.

Religion is not complete without rules and code of conduct and football is no exception. It has got its own rules, its own mysterious language and song of praise.
And if the rules are broken then it has the priest, the father or the molana of its own blowing whistle and punishing the players by showing yellow and red cards.

In the end I would like to say that even though football falls in every category of a religion it has its gods, book, followers, holly warriors etc it fall a just short of a religion because The faithful don't get angry if God doesn't deliver a miracle every week. Football fans on the other hand do get very annoyed if their teams are not performing to the expected level, and miracles are often demanded