I have a question!

[Kropotkin]

Speaking as someone who's not very familiar with American Football I was wondering if there's an equivalent international competition to what soccer (football)/ rugby and cricket has? As in countries from around the globe all representing their nations every 4 years. I suspect the answer is 'there isn't' as I have never seen any teams from across the planet competing is such a competition.

This leads on to my next question. Given the list of North American sports such as Ice Hockey, Basketball, Baseball and indeed American Football which of these are given the chance to hold an international event that is held in similar regard to the soccer, cricket and rugby world cups. I can't think of any but I may be wrong here.

So I ask you this, oh experts in this, to me and a large proportion of the rest of the world a rather mystifying sport played by very large people, why is this?

[Ruiz]

We like to compete against other teams in our own countries and declare ourselves World Champs. :lol:

There's an NBA-All Star and NHL-All Star team that competes against other countries. I think that's the extent of it though.

[All-Night John]

We like to compete against other teams in our own countries and declare ourselves World Champs. :lol:
But our leagues contain the best players from around the world.

[Kropotkin]

We like to compete against other teams in our own countries and declare ourselves World Champs. :lol:
But our leagues contain the best players from around the world.

So does England soccer Premier League but soccer still has international tournaments with players representing their countries, not their clubs. It just doesn't stack up as a valid argument.

[Shady45]

We like to compete against other teams in our own countries and declare ourselves World Champs. :lol:
But our leagues contain the best players from around the world.

So does England soccer Premier League but soccer still has international tournaments with players representing their countries, not their clubs. It just doesn't stack up as a valid argument.


But like 90 % of them are from America or Africa, so it would be a pretty lame tournament.

[Kscriv]

This leads on to my next question. Given the list of North American sports such as Ice Hockey, Basketball, Baseball and indeed American Football which of these are given the chance to hold an international event that is held in similar regard to the soccer, cricket and rugby world cups. I can't think of any but I may be wrong here.

For Hockey there is the World Cup of Hockey which starts in August. For basketball pros are allowed to the olympics, can't say the same about baseball & football though.

[Burr]

For hockey not only is there the World Cup of Hockey, there's also World Championships every year at the same time as the Stanley Cup Playoffs and also yearly World Junior Championships, not to mention the Olympics, so it's a very internationalized sport that's really taken seriously in Canada and Europe. To celebrate the entry of professionals into Olympic hockey competition the NHL All-Star Game was divided between a team of North Americans and a team with players from the rest of the world, but that got changed back to the regular conference format recently.

http://www.iihf.com/ = the equivalent to soccer's FIFA

http://wch2004.com/ = World Cup of Hockey website

[Kscriv]

Yea I didn't really mention those cause the World Cup (formerly the Canada Cup) s coming first out of them. Also that also reminds me Canada can go Triple Crown if they win it

Olympic Champs- Canada
World Champs- Canada
World Cup- USA (for now)

[Kropotkin]

Why drop the 'Ice' before 'Ice Hockey'. I mean there is the other type of hockey, i.e. field hockey which shouldn't be ignored. Still, if it's the only hockey you know then I can't complain. It's a bit like you calling 'football' 'American Football' which is what the rest of the world calls it just to differentiate it from 'real football' i.e. soccer.

Yes that's what the rest of the planet refers soccer as, 'real football'. Oh and American football has also been described as 'turned based rugby' which made me chuckle :-D