So what Sports are the easiest to watch and understand?
Perhaps we should first look at what Sports are "difficult to understand" for the initiated. On top of that list would be the game where the "at-fault whistle" is blown more times in a match than any other Sport – Hockey. During the famous 1935 Indian hockey team tour of Australia a commentator said: "That's the game where the whistle blows all the time". Not much has changed since 1935 with hockey, it is a 'truth undeniable' that hockey is fraught with the dreaded whistle.
Netball too is not the easiest game to follow unless you have a good grounding in the sport as the game is built on "stopping" not "going"! In Basketball it's "all go" from start to finish (much easier to follow the drift). In Netball you receive the ball when stopped. You pass the ball on when stopped. It's about "stopping" not "going". It's philosophical concept is simply weird.
The two Ruggers – Union and Rugby League have this strange idea that although you're forging ahead with all gusto, the ball itself must go backwards. It's the ultimate oxymoron. Who can follow that logic?
On the other hand the straight forward "start to finish" Sports are simple enough to follow. The first row boat (singles to the eights) to pass the finish line is the winner. The first swimmer to touch the end of the pool is the winner. The triple jumper with the longest distance of the jumps on that day, wins.
But in my view Soccer is the easiest to watch and understand. I've watched it over many years both live (watching our kids play) and on television, such as the A-League, the English Premier League and of course the World Cup.
Any observer without an intricate knowledge of Soccer recognises these "facts undeniable":
1. A clever trip "umpire undetected" of an opponent gets a roar from both supporters sides – one for the sheer brilliance of the trip, the other for its undetection.
2. Each soccer player' having attended "acting class" display their skills as well any Logie-award-winner in the soccer fixtures "classic dives" event. This always get the most enormous roar from the crowd, half are in adoration of such a display of beauty, while the other half are aghast.
3. An even more subtle form of soccer that gets the crowds in a stupor of apoplexy is the "shirt pull". It's "obvious as" on television, the defender tugs away at the shirt of his opponent, either when running through or going up for a header. We love this gladiatorial undetection. Little wonder the crowds have a ready store of "fresh eye-glasses" to offer the umpires.
4. The offside rule too is a classic in Soccer. This is the Lines-men / women great moment in the sun! They dream of this one momentous act on the world stage. It's the highlight of their week! And no "video replay" please! It's a microcosm of what happens at FIFA level. It's all so very easy to watch and comprehend.
5. The off-field antics are just as enjoyable to watch and we all understand these things. We learnt recently that a beach house was only one of the payments required for one particular soccer player "to sign the dotted line". Shopping sprees of the soccer player's partners, now there's something to watch and we all understand this.
Yes, Soccer takes the cake, is is by far the easiest to watch and understand at all levels.
Christian Today Australia has a motto at its masthead. It is Jesus' words from Matthew 5 verse 37: "Let your yes by yes, and your no, no".