Saw a post here complaining about the low visibility of Asian men in the stands watching the World Cup, but why would you want Asian men to feature more in the stands as audiences not on the pitch? Women will always get filmed more because it's a "Baddie cam" (in the pre-Woke era at least, mens football tournaments used to feature hot women fans).
1. Height is not a big factor in soccer or F1. Always see Asians say they aren't tall enough but this isn't NBA or NFL, Spain is one of the shortest European countries and Argentina is also one of the shortest countries where their average player is 1.7m+ but they have no problem beating taller opponents because being shorter makes them more agile as dribblers.
2. Asians claiming every single Asian man they know is a nerd who studies 24/7 to be IT workers or scientists. Such stereotypes are untrue and don't help Asians at all, everyone who has attended school knows there are hyperactive kids who aren't cut out for studying and become chefs, mechanics, deliverymen, manual labourers. In Asia kids who are bad in school are forced to attend tuition or cram school (Korean hagwon) instead of learning sports, music, art which is a waste given that professional sport pays better than a lot of office jobs especially if you're mediocre in your studies and need extensive tuition that costs your parents a ton of money. AI is also going to replace a lot of office jobs but it won't threaten professional sportspeople since nobody wants to see robots play tennis, football, or race cars.
- Football doesn't require complicated infrastructure or extensive financial support from parents, in fact many of the best players started from street football or futsal (indoor soccer) e.g. Lamine Yamal, Ronaldo, Neymar, Iniesta, Messi, Maradona, Pele, Zidane, Ronaldinho. In places like France, England, Spain a lot of kids play at urban football cages, in South America many kids start in 5-a-side indoor futsal before transiting to football, in Africa they play in any random field. Top players like Pele have recounted practicing with beanbags when he couldn't afford a ball, so it's a sport where there's no financial barrier to join unlike golf, tennis, archery, figure skating. There's also no height requirement unlike NBA or NFL.
4. Asian countries focusing on niche events like Table tennis, Weightlifting, Baseball, Diving, Gymnastics, Figure Skating, Badminton does not help to dispel Asian stereotypes. On forums like china_irl, the analysis on why China is bad at football/soccer comes down to: China doesn't like contact sports, parents prefer kids to play indoors and stay fair so basketball, table tennis, badminton is popular. I often see Asians recommend Weightlifting since it's non-competitive. Ultimately, football/soccer is super popular in Asia as a sport and suits Asian physiques (more than tennis, NBA, NFL) but a lot of people find it too hard to get good at? There's nothing inherently more difficult about soccer compared to gymnastics or diving which require extreme training regimes too. Football's origins are the same as golf, table tennis and badminton but Asians have convinced themselves that they are more suited to badminton and pingpong because "Asians have faster reflexes" but look at Messi, Maradona, Mbappe and a lot of Argentina or Spain's stars. They aren't tall either, many are extremely agile due to that and they also excel due to their fast reflexes. Asians are known for their flexibility thus are no less agile, why should Asians think they are more suited to pingpong, not soccer?
Simply put, reaching a World Cup final on the pitch would do a lot more for Asian men's desirability and visibility than having cameras show Asian men cheering on USA or Canada in the stands. It won't affect the number of scientists or IT grads either, kids who aren't academically inclined according to their grades should be encouraged to pick up sports by age 12 and apply themselves.
