Sport in Europe
Sport in Europe tends to be highly organized with many sports having professional leagues. The origins of many of the world's most popular sports today lie in the codification of many traditional games, especially in the United Kingdom. However, a paradoxical feature of European sport is the extent to which local, regional and national variations continue to exist, and even in some instances to predominate.[1]
Main events
- European Games
- European Championship
- European Para Championships
- European Championships (multi-sport event)
- European Youth Olympic Festival
- European Para Youth Games
Region events
- Mediterranean Games
- Games of the Small States of Europe and Championship
- Commonwealth Games and Championship (Commonwealth of Nations)
- CIS Games (2021 CIS Games - 2023 CIS Games) (Commonwealth of Independent States)
- Island Games
- Balkan Gamesand Championship
- Black Sea Games and Championship
- European Union Championship
- AdriaticChampionship
- Nordic (Scandinavic) Championship (Nordic)
- Baltic Championship
- Central European Championship (Central European Weightlifting Federation)
- West EuropeanChampionship
- East EuropeanChampionship
- South EuropeanChampionship
- North EuropeanChampionship
- Benelux Championship
- Eurasia Cup
- Intercontinental Cup
Team sports
Association football
Association football is the most popular sport in almost all countries of Europe. European national teams have won 12 of 21 editions of the FIFA World Cup. Italy and Germany have won four titles each, followed by France with two titles and England and Spain, each won the World Cup once. UEFA, the governing body for European football, has hosted the UEFA European Championship since 1960, and the UEFA Women's Championship since 1984.
The most popular and successful football leagues are the Big Five: the English Premier League; the Spanish La Liga; the German Bundesliga; the Italian Serie A; and the French Ligue 1.[2][3] Other main football leagues on the continent are the Portuguese Primeira Liga , the Dutch Eredivisie , the Russian Premier League, the Turkish Süper Lig . The top clubs in each league play the UEFA Champions League, while lower-ranked clubs compete in UEFA Europa League and the UEFA Europa Conference League.
As of 7 February 2024, the top 10 most popular sports clubs on social media are all football clubs from Europe:[4]
# | Club | Country | Followers |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Real Madrid |
Spain | 360.5 million |
2 | FC Barcelona | Spain | 318.8 million |
3 | Manchester United |
United Kingdom | 207 million |
4 | Paris Saint-Germain |
France | 163 million |
5 | Juventus |
Italy | 147.4 million |
6 | Manchester City |
United Kingdom | 139.7 million |
7 | Chelsea FC |
United Kingdom | 136.7 million |
8 | Liverpool FC |
United Kingdom | 131.6 million |
9 | Bayern Munich |
Germany | 126.5 million |
10 | Arsenal FC |
United Kingdom | 99.2 million |
Basketball
The EuroBasket is the main European basketball competition for men's national teams, first held in 1935. The Soviet Union and Yugoslavia have won the most titles, with Spain claiming three championships since the late 2000s.
The
Handball
The EHF Champions League is the most important handball club competition for men's teams in Europe and involves the leading teams from the top European nations, i n the 21/22 season, it experienced a record viewership of 1.1 billion people across all streaming platforms around the world. While the 2024 European Championship exceeded the number of spectators in the arena of even 1 million people.
Cricket
The
Ireland has recently received Test status in 2017. Ireland traditionally rivalled Scotland, and thereafter the Netherlands before Ireland gained full test status, while more latterly have added ongoing rivalries with Afghanistan who rose to test status with them, Zimbabwe, Pakistan (who they first hosted for test cricket) and the West Indies.
Field hockey
Field hockey is from England and is one of the most popular sports in Western Europe, The Netherlands and Germany have been champions in both world cups, Belgium has also been champion in the men's tournament, Germany is the most recent champion in Men's Hockey World Cup and The Netherlands is the most recent champion in Women's Hockey World Cup.
In the Olympics, Great Britain, The Netherlands and Germany have been champions in both tournaments, Spain has been the winner in the 1992 Women's tournament, Belgium is the most recent winner in the Men's tournament and The Netherlands is the most recent winner in the Women's tournament.
Ice hockey
Ice hockey is the most popular or one of the most popular sports in many European nations, including Czechia, Switzerland, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Slovakia, Latvia, Belarus, and northern and central Europe, where it rivals association football in popularity. It is also popular at a professional level in Germany, Norway, Austria, most of Western Europe and isolated parts of the former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.
The
The Ice Hockey European Championships for national teams was played from 1910 to 1932. National teams currently play the Ice Hockey World Championships, where Russia / Soviet Union have claimed a combined 27 titles, the Czech Republic / Czechoslovakia 12 and Sweden 11.
Rugby union
Rugby union is popular in France (especially the south), England, Wales, Scotland (especially the main cities and Borders), Ireland, Italy and Georgia. The game is also relatively popular in Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Russia, Poland, Moldova, Andorra and Romania, as it is at a professional level in these countries. Rugby is regarded as the national sport of Wales and Georgia, and is the strongest professional team sport in Ireland.
Europe's main competition for national teams is the Six Nations Championship, first held in 1883 as the Home Nations Championship. The other European national teams play at the Rugby Europe International Championships. The England national team is the only European team to have won the Rugby World Cup, whereas France was runner-up three times and Wales and Scotland reached the semifinals once.
The three main domestic rugby union competitions are the fully professional
Rugby league
Rugby league is popular in northern England, where the sport formed in 1895.
The Great Britain national team first played in 1908, and entered the World Cup until 1992 and the Tri-Nations until 2006. Great Britain has won the World Cup three times, whereas France has been runner-up twice.
Clubs from England compete in the only fully professional league, the Super League, as well as the Challenge Cup competition.
Volleyball
European teams have won most editions of the FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship, led by Italy with three wins. In the FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship, the Soviet Union has won five editions, Russia two, and Italy and Serbia one each. The Soviet Union has won three men's gold medals and four women's gold medals at the Olympics.
The European Volleyball Confederation was founded in 1963, but the Men's European Volleyball Championship was first held in 1948 and the Women's European Volleyball Championship was first held in 1949, with the Soviet Union and Russia leading both in titles.
The
Water polo
Water polo is played professionally in several European countries. LEN organises continental competitions for men's and women's. European teams have dominated the World Aquatics Championships and have also won several editions of the Women's Championship.
The LEN Champions League is the most important water polo club competition for teams in Europe and involves the leading teams from the top European nations.
Other sports
Other team sports like
Baseball is also gaining popularity in some countries, like in the United Kingdom, where the sport is reputed to have started in the 1800s before exploding in the United States.[5][6][7] In Spain, due to Latin American immigrants bringing the sport, particularly from countries like Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Venezuela.[8][9] In countries like Italy, Ireland, and Germany, growth in the sport is partly due to influence from Italian Americans, Irish Americans, and German Americans.[10] Other countries include France, Netherlands, and Greece, among others.[11]
Some sport competitions features a
Reigning European champions
National teams
Clubs
European eSports
Since the early beginnings of Esports, Europe has had a role in the sport's advancement in world recognition. In the early 1990s, France's Electronic Sports World Cup and Germany's Gamers Gathering together both garnered more than 2,000 participants, being just a popular as other sports competitions in the United States and South Korea.[12] Just recently, Esports has recently become more recognized as a legitimate sporting event in Europe, marked by the formation of the European Esports Federation in 2019.[13] Since its formation, it has grown in size to 44 member nations and is currently headed by its president, Thiago Fernandes.[14] Today, nations like Sweden, Denmark, France, and Germany are all in the top highest earning nations in the world, each earning around $50 million.[citation needed]
Individual sports
The European Championships is a new multi-sport event which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports, including Golf, Cycling, Athletics, Aquatics, and Gymnastics, every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 will be staged by the host cities of Glasgow, Scotland and Berlin, Germany between 2 and 12 August.
Cycling
Road cycling is especially popular in France, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands. Nearly every UCI World Tour race is held in Europe, including the three Grands Tours: Tour de France, Vuelta a España and Giro d'Italia, as well as the five Monuments: Milan–San Remo, Tour of Flanders, Paris–Roubaix, Liège–Bastogne–Liège and Giro di Lombardia.
Notable road cyclists include
.Golf
Europe competes as a single team in the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup versus the United States, and the Royal Trophy and EurAsia Cup versus Asia. Also, the Seve Trophy was played between the Great Britain and Ireland and the Continental Europe team.
Notable male golfers include Nick Faldo, Colin Montgomerie, Rory McIlroy, Pádraig Harrington, Ian Woosnam, Lee Westwood, Henrik Stenson, Bernhard Langer, Martin Kaymer, Seve Ballesteros, José María Olazábal and Miguel Ángel Jiménez. Notable female golfers include Annika Sörenstam, Laura Davies and Suzann Pettersen.
Motorsport
Notable racecar drivers include
Motorcycle
Motorcycle speedway is also popular in Poland, Scandinavia, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom.
Tennis
Notable male tennis players include Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker, Ivan Lendl and Björn Borg. Notable female tennis players include Steffi Graf, Maria Sharapova, Monica Seles, Justine Henin, Martina Hingis, Simona Halep, Ana Ivanovic, Victoria Azarenka, Caroline Wozniacki, Conchita Martínez, Angelique Kerber, Garbiñe Muguruza, Petra Kvitová, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, and Iga Świątek.
Other sports
The most prestigious and lucrative
For those areas with the proper climate,
Horse racing is very popular in the United Kingdom and France. Major events are the
.Other popular individual sports include snooker, darts, and boxing.
Traditional sports
Some regions have games that are particular to their home, for example
Olympic Games
Europe was the birthplace of the Olympic Movement that has become so central to modern individual sport, with the
During the Cold War, the
Club over franchise
Unlike major team sports in the United States and Canada, where franchises are awarded to nominated cities, most European teams have grown from small clubs formed by groups of individuals before growing rapidly. Churches, universities and work places have often been the most fertile birthplace of many of Europe's major sports clubs, particularly in Britain, which in latter part of the nineteenth century led the way in organised sports.[18]
Clubs therefore had an equal chance to grow to become among the strongest in their particular sport, specially as in majority of popular sports promotion and relegation process exists and allows a plethora of places to compete for the top level. The cultural importance of the system has been demonstrated through the public rejection of the European Super League proposals in Spring 2021.[19][20]
See also
- European Championship
- European Championships (multi-sport event)
- European Games
- Nations League
- List of professional sports leagues by revenue
- Team Europe
- Sport policies of the European Union
- Directorate-General for Education and Culture
- Sport in Africa
- Sport in Asia
- Sport in Oceania
- Sport in North America
- Sport in South America
- Western sports
Notes
References
- ISBN 9783039119776.
- ^ Samso, R. (19 December 2019). "Main football leagues in Europe in 2018-2019, ranked by average attendance of games". Statista. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
- ^ "Bundesliga still top of the league for attendances". Reuters. 15 January 2018. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
- ^ https://jobsinfootball.com/blog/most-supported-football-clubs-in-the-world/
- ^ Block (2005), pp. 86, 87, 111–113, 118–121, 135–138, 144, 160; Rader (2008), p. 7.
- ^ "Rounders (English Game)". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
- ^ Cohen, Claire (2 February 2015). "Save rounders! It's the only sport for people who hate sport". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
- ^ Baseball in Cuba
- Cuban baseball's historical influence in Spain
- ^ Josh Chetwynd, op. cit. , p. 40
- ^ "Schaerlaeckens: European baseball is providing prospects and gaining popularity". 9 September 2011.
- ^ "eSports History: How it all began". www.ispo.com. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
- ^ "European Esports Federation to Form With 12 National Members – ARCHIVE - The Esports Observer". 18 April 2019. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
- ^ "About Esports Europe - The Official Website Of Esports Europe". 13 August 2022. Retrieved 26 January 2024.
- ^ "Valentino Rossi career". Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Official Website. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
- ^ "European Championships: Farah & Rutherford help GB top table". BBC. 17 August 2014. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
- ^ "A history of winter olympic medals". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
- ISBN 9780313316104.
- ^ Niblock, Shane. "The European Super League – An international culture clash". OCO Global. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
- ^ Butler, Robert. "European Super League collapse: US football owners badly misread supporter culture in England". The Conversation. Retrieved 21 September 2022.