With the soccer World Cup kicking off last week in South Africa, it is interesting to consider the effects that standardization has played in spreading the popularity of the game internationally.
Modern soccer stems from mid 19th century efforts to standardize the rules of various codes of football played throughout English public schools during the era. The primary motivation was to overcome considerable interoperability which required teams to agree on a match by match basis upon the rules with which to be played as prior to this, each club had had its own unique set of rules which could vary considerably. For instance a number of schools played a variation of the game, which would eventually develop into Rugby, in which players were free to handle the ball with their hands, forbidden by many other clubs.
Soccer as single standard vies for widespread market adoption, measured as number of fans or international popularity, against competing standards in the form of other sporting codes. Soccer’s governing body, the 8 member International Football Association Board which meets biannually, plays a similar role as an informal industry driven Standards Setting Organization, adapting the game to changing user needs.
Soccer is incredibly successful as a standard, with over 240 million people from more than 200 countries regularly playing the sport – according to a survey conducted and published by FIFA in 2001. Similarly the last previous World Cup in 2006 had a television audience of 26.29 billion people across 214 countries and territories.
The success of a sporting standard, particularly team sports, relies to a large extent on significant network effects. The enjoyment of both fans and players increase at the margin with the addition of more fans and players – however, this is completely negated by the widespread use of the Vuvuzela this World Cup.
More young players allow more teams to play spreading which results in a wider catchment for professional teams to recruit from. More fans bring more money, either directly or indirectly through sponsorship. Herein lies an important similarity with technological standards.
The simple rules (just 17 broad laws) and limited equipment required have obviously affected the popularity of soccer. Compared to say ice hockey which requires substantial investments in both gear and playing facilities, soccer can be played with as little as a ball and an open space. However, other games with even simpler rules and less equipment have failed to reach an audience anywhere near the size of soccer’s let alone start a war in Central America (Football War).
So what lessons can be learned from the impressive success of the soccer standardization? First of all, the widespread adoption of the rules can be attributed to the simplicity of the standards system. Also, the valuable network effects cannot be stressed enough. Thus, when it comes to technology, interoperability is key in determining the impact and success of any certain standard. The common expression of “less is more” is perhaps easier to apply to soccer than to e.g. advanced mobile technology standards, but the notion can be the same for policy makers etc, especially when striving towards international coordination of standardization processes in today’s global economy.
