I don't think you understand how popular soccer has always been, everywhere. The last FIFA census estimated that there are 265 million people playing in organi

I don't think you understand how popular soccer has always been, everywhere. The last FIFA census estimated that there are 265 million people playing in organized games with 5 million referees. We're not even talking about pickup games - which is what the research in your link is about (I'll ignore the quality of research methodology for now) - we're talking about organized leagues. The number of people who play pickup soccer games is much, much higher.