How to Engage with the 2022 Soccer World Cup as a Non-Fan


Photo by Lars Bo Nielsen on Unsplash

When you’re not a sports fan yourself, it might seem as though events such as the world cup would have absolutely no appeal to you whatsoever. However, sometimes this isn’t the case. This might be because of all the fanfare and marketing around such tournaments that can draw you into its sphere regardless of whether you intend to pay attention to it or not, but it might also be due to the community of excitement that can accompany them.

So, if you are interested in getting involved with the world cup in some capacity, as someone who has no prior interest in the sport, where do you begin?

With Friends?

Perhaps the most obvious route for you to take would be one that involves a social setting. This way, your enjoyment of the next evening isn’t wholly dependent on watching a ninety-minute game of something you might not be interested in. If the match fails to grab your attention, you’re still spending time with your friends, and the constant discussion with them and joint effort to make the evening about the game might prompt more attention towards it.

The most natural way that some people might find to structure such a day would be to head to a venue such as a pub or sports bar that tends to play world cup games for the crowds to enjoy, meaning you can do something that you and your friends might anyway with the game on in the background.

Learn What Others Do

Looking at how other people often enjoy the world cup might help to give your own ideas on what might appeal to you. Some people enjoy the stats behind the games and previous world cup tournaments, for example, and while the sport might not interest you, a quantifiable approach might speak to something in you that allows you to achieve a higher level of interest than you had previously. 

Additionally, some people like to get involved with activities such as sports betting on the side in order to heighten their own sense of involvement in the game, and while this will certainly be an option for you, it’s important that you’re aware of how to do so responsibly in order to reduce the chance of such an activity having a negative impact and you getting carried away by the excitement.

Follow One Team

If you just want to get involved enough to be able to chat about it and feel as though you’re a part of the greater conversation surrounding the world cup, you don’t need to go all out – you only need to really follow one team. This team might typically be the one that represents the place where you live, but it doesn’t need to be, especially if that team doesn’t make it as far as you’d like. 

Following one team like this might also mean that the prospect of getting into something new like this doesn’t overwhelm you completely and instead remains something light and easy that you can simply keep an eye on when you feel like it. 

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