Text B Why are the European and American sportswor...
5-6 Different“Football”
In the 19th and 20th century，the European and American sports formations and cultures developed along quite different paths.First，other sports became popular in the United States than in Europe，with baseball，basketball，hockey，and “American football”as themost prominent in the United States，versus“global football”（or soccer），tennis，cycling and gymnastics as the most popular sports in Europe.Second，these sports were developed，organized and practiced in different contexts：that of voluntary clubs and associations in Europe and that of schools，colleges and universities in the United States.Third，American sports commercialized and professionalized earlier and much more thoroughly than European sports.Fourth，as a business，professional sports in the United States were organized in closed leagues of competing franchises，while both amateur and professional sports in Europe formed part of open competitions based on the principle of promotion and relegation.Fifth，Europe's open sport competitions got an international or even global appeal and were governed by international nonprofit federations，whereas America's closed professional leagues remained national in scope and meaning for a long time，and were established under profit-oriented managerial control without any international regulatory body.And sixth，compared to Europe，the American government hardly influenced the development of the sporting formations and cultures.Sports in the United States developed market-driven and independent of the state，while governments in Europe increasingly intervened in the world of sports，especially after the Second World War.