Are young fans from the sub continent more open to other sports such as the EPL these days?

I'm a relatively young fan from the sub continent and cricket is not my favourite sport. That honour goes to football, which I have been watching since the tender age of 8. I remember watching my first World Cup in 1998 won by the hosts France. I also distinctly remember picking up an interest in the various European football leagues, the big 3 of England Spain and Italy and the Champions League too. Still in awe of that 1999 European Cup finale when United put 2 past Bayern in stoppage time, that was my first experience of the Cup final and I can recall much of that match vividly even today.

From then on, I've become more and more fanatical towards this sport, like staying up early in the morning at 2 and 3 am to watch the games being played hundreds and thounsands of miles away "live". I would never in my wildest dreams stay up all morning to watch a cricket match, even if India were playing. It may sound ironic to you, but my favourite sport team is the Dutch national football side and then MS Dhoni and Co in second. I'm very serious about my admiration and fascination for the Oranje, who caught my eye since that France '98 World Cup. It was only years later that I started picking up some interest in cricket and the Indian team.

You might also recognise the avatar I have been using all this while. If you don't then here's a hint... It was the mascot for one of the major footballing tournaments held in the past many years!

In Colombo Rugby is equally popular as Cricket

In some areas like Kandy rugby is the no 1 sport...Infact Sri Lanka is no 4 in Asian rugby so it is a major sport there..

Rugby club matches there are way ahead of cricket ! domestic rugby matches attract crowds that are around 20,000 - 25,000 but domestic cricket match won`t attract more than 100 people even when sanga,mahela & etc are playing !!! (But our school cricket matches,specially the annual match called `big match` attract 15000+ in large schools)

Since I came to England for my studies, I started following football (used to call it soccer when I was in Sri Lanka but my friends here in England don`t like the word soccer that much :D)

having said that football has a very little popularity in Sri Lanka..most people don`t know anything about it...People watch it during the WC but otherwise it is a country where Soccer is least popular.

I have always been a huge fan of Barcelona and a die hard Messi fan..Liverpool is my favourite English team..It is actually because my best English friend is a crazy football & fan he is a like the biggest Liverpool fan u would ever come across..So I had to go with him even for their matches and then eventually I became a Liverpool fan !

As Desi said, football is widely popular in West Bengal, Goa and the north east states. Its slowly gaining popularity all over India, especially among the youngsters. I used to be a great fan of Man U but I support Chelsea now. I still occasionally visit the Soccer section to get some updates.

Football and specially EPL has a huge fan following mainly in the states of West Bengal, Kerala and Goa. It is next to cricket in rest of the regions in the India. Manchester United is the most popular club in India as per this polls conducted by NDTV

http://www.ndtv.com/article/polls/which-is-the-mos...

There is an interesting article on this

http://www.gqindia.com/content/india%E2%80%99s-lov...

Sure there is lot of interest in EPL, Spanish, German, Italian leagues but EPL being the most exposed one. We have numerous pubs & bars, where they have live action during the weekend but when its IPL & other ODI's, then the competition is tough. Only rugged football fans would watch EPL over cricket, else its cricket mostly..

Sorry, No football for me.....I don't like it.

You would find many Indian fans supporting EPL or some other leagues. It is because around 45 million Indians has been living outside India.

I think Football itself is the most popular game in the world .In Bangladesh there are more flags at Football world cup than cricket .Yes we have many followers of EPL and other league .Even Bangladesh arranged match between Argentina vs Nigeria in Dhaka with tons of money (i don't think they have paid any cricket team that much ) so Yes those players performance in different clubs that what make people see those leagues .In these region arranging a football match is more easy than buying or getting cricket gears .so yes and most of them play with different club jersey .In BD Foreign Football club jersey is more favorable for people to use as regular use than any cricket jersey

I can give a nice answer myself being a youngster, but I don't have much time for now. Please leave it open for another 24 hours. Damn it. Though missing some of my friends, but school from tomorrow means getting up early morning.

For now, I would just say yes. Later I would tell give a better explained answer.

Thanks as I know you would. :-).

Edit:

Sharing my experience, yes, soccer leagues are largely followed. Fans favorite club here is FC Barcelona from Spain and Real Madrid (La Liga), and from UK, it's Manchester United and Chelsea. Barcelona is mostly followed, but my favorite is Manchester United purely because of Wayne Rooney, and Real Madrid because of Chris Ronaldo. I like these better than Leo Messi because he mainly depends on his speed, and isn't a good striker when free kicks are concerned unlike Rooney and Ronaldo. Along with Barclays Premier League, La Liga (Spanish Premier League) is also followed.

I myself don't watch football much. Had you asked it four years ago, I couldn't have told you for which team does Rooney or Ronaldo play for. I developed my interest after I started playing EA soccer on my PC. Then started following it in the newspaper, yet in the 16 years, 11 months of my life, I haven't seen a soccer match from the first minute to the last. I follow the results on the net and newspaper, and I'm glad the Real Madrid is about to clinch La Liga, a bit sad cause Man U got knocked out of UEFA, but still happy with their performance in Barclay's PL.

Among my friends, some are crazy soccer fans too. Last year, UEFA Champions League was largely followed, and my friends would watch each and every match from the knockouts, so they were there to ask for the results, rather than looking out for it in the newspaper. FIFA World Cup was also followed, and ESPN earned a lot of TRP by telecasting it.

But I don't think there is something to look for in near future in Indian Football.

I don't like Rugby much, as it's quite opposite to cricket, cricket being a gentlemen's game. But I'm quite aware of the rules.

I agree & with India now hosting an annual F1 event I see that becoming more popular among younger fans there as well.Tennis also seems to be popular with some as well.

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