Soccer is the Greatest Sport

I would like to say that my personal beliefs don't lead me to disagree with or agree with my opponent, rather I took this debate for the challenge. Thanks for hosting :) For the sake of argument, I will not claim that one sport is the best, but rather dispute the claim that Soccer is the greatest sport. Let me secondly define greatest: "highest in quality" Princeton Word Net. << >> With the advent of television, practically every sport is played in every country. Granted, worldwide, soccer may be the most popular, but that is arguable. Besides, who says that popularity coincides with greatness? Just an example off the top of my head (I can offer more later, if required), lets look to Bush's presidency. He was elected, not because he had shown a tremendous amount of skill (or greatness) but rather because he was popular. His name was recognizable, his party could get behind him, and he was the "right" religion. Does the fact that he was popular make him the best president? Hardly! Additionally, Soccer has alot of recognition, whereas other sports created in America do not. European countries colonized a staggering amount of other countries, bringing with them their traditions (soccer). Conversely, had football or baseball been an European invention, it's likely we could have this exact same discussion with flipped stances. Popularity doesn't neccesarily coincide with greatness. << >> Actually, the most popular athlete, in terms of name recognition, would probably be Michael Jordan. I'll go ahead and cite some sources for this: . http://www.forbes.com... This site talks about the best paid athletes. Keeping with the theme that greatness is "highest quality" it would make sense that the best quality players would make the most money, and therefore. .. a measure of greatness is money. The site lists the highest paid athlete as: Tiger Woods. No surprise there. Actually, the first spot to belong to a soccer player is at number 7, with Beckham. Even if i concede that Beckham is the most popular, it isn't because of soccer. . http://www.paklinks.com... The article says: "His (Beckham's) fan base goes far beyond sports; many of them don't even care about football. " << >> Commercial's mean that people watch the sport. Wouldn't this point mean that Football is more profitable? As for the cost of the equipment, that's all relative to the stage. If you play on a team, chances are you'll be payed for. If you're just playing in the yard, neither sport costs anything, save the ball. Your last 4 paragraph's are all valid points, but I fail to see how they make Soccer the greatest. Additionally, they are faults witha singular sport; football. As your burden of proof, it's demanded that you prove that soccer is better than ALL sports. Not just football. My points: Keeping with the given definition, I'll argue that the quality of soccer isn't as high as other sports. Let's look at a list of best rivalries (Which is synonymous with quality. Better rivalries = better games = better quality). . http://espn.go.com... Not a single soccer team on there. I'll reserve the right to bring up other points in my next post, as I have to leave. Good luck!