Dr. Johnathan Anderson
Assistant Professor of Sports Media in the department of Communication and Media at Samford University. He teaches and conducts research on the role and impact of sports video games within contemporary sports culture.
Email: jander20@samford.edu
As a sports media scholar, I’m interested in fan beliefs and behaviors, their tendencies and how they navigate tough losses emotionally. The question I find most interesting though is pretty simple: How does someone become a fan in the first place?
As the United States plays co-host to the 2026 World Cup, I find that origin question even more compelling. The culture of soccer in the U.S. has grown tremendously in the last decade; understanding how Americans managed to get to this point is a progression worth exploring.
Scholars conceptualize the mechanisms and processes behind fandom formation in a variety of ways. In my classes, I approach the topic through a discussion of what I call the five building blocks of fandom. These foundational elements include exposure, knowledge, points of attachment, community, and emotional triggers. Together, the formation of these building blocks can help explain how someone might move from awareness to obsession within their sports fandom.
However, forming those building blocks requires an entry point, and historically, the typical entry points to fandom for nearly all other major sports in the United States. haven’t applied for soccer. Most sports fans inherited their fandom from their family, grew up with a sport being a pervasive element of their upbringing, or were introduced to it through the variety of sports programming that dominated the airwaves. Given that soccer lacked these generational traditions, cultural ubiquity and consistent media visibility in the U.S., it required alternative entry points to establish a meaningful foothold within the American sports landscape.
Fortunately for U.S. soccer enthusiasts, the contemporary media environment was successful in reshaping these conditions. Streaming services and social media have contributed immensely to this growth, bringing international competition to American audiences and opening the door for those audiences to engage in a more global sporting conversation. While these two arenas are rightly celebrated for their contributions, another important and often underemphasized area of sports media has also played a significant role. Sports video games (SVGs) have long served as entry points into the sport, helping to educate newcomers while fostering early forms of connection and identification with the sport.
For years, EA Sports’ soccer franchise has quietly contributed has quietly contributed to the normalization of global football culture among American audiences. Long before casual viewers regularly watched Premier League or Champions League matches, EAFC (EA Sports FC, formerly FIFA) players were interacting with clubs, national teams, tactics, and international stars through gameplay. EAFC lowered the barriers to soccer fandom, allowing players to ‘talk soccer’ by functioning as an informal educational and cultural space through which users learned how to understand and engage with the global game.
At the same time, the franchise’s influence extended beyond simple exposure and knowledge acquisition. Through repeated interaction with clubs, players, and competitions, users often developed points of attachments and social connections tied to the sport. They began following teams they frequently used in-game, developed affinities for particular nations or athletes, and engaged with online soccer communities through gaming spaces, social media, and streaming platforms. Throughout these engagements, EAFC contributed to each of the foundational building blocks associated with fandom formation.
In the buildup to the 2026 World Cup, EAFC released The World’s Gameupdate, a reflection of EA Sports’ continued attempt to position EAFC as a gateway into global football culture following the company’s split from FIFA branding. Beyond introducing World Cup-themed content to Ultimate Team, EAFC’s most popular mode, the update introduced a new game mode by the same name which allows players to simulate the World Cup while controlling their preferred nation(s). Players can play the tournament as true to life or modify the experience by rearranging group pairings or swap qualified teams with select nations that missed out. Each nation in the game mode is presented with a biography alongside its ratings that details the footballing story of each nation as well as a summary of its success, including total World Cup appearances and highest finish as well as their success in regional competitions. These elements highlight the intentions of the mode to function as a digital entry point into both the tournament and global football culture.
The World Cup already provides a uniquely accessible entry point for newer fans. The structure, national identities, recognizable stars, and dramatic stakes simplify many of the barriers that can complicate entry into global club soccer. The World’s Game builds upon this accessibility by allowing users not just to watch the tournament, but to actively participate within it. It provides a platform for players to develop the building blocks of their own fandom.
In the wake of the 2026 World Cup, the long-term success of soccer fandom in the United States will depend on more than visibility alone. Exposure introduces audiences to the sport, but sustained fandom emerges through emotional investment, cultural familiarity, and participatory engagement. Within this broader process, EAFC and The World’s Game should be considered as meaningful contributors helping audiences learn how to experience, understand, and ultimately care about soccer.
While EAFC is not solely responsible for the growth of soccer in the U. S., and The World’s Game will not alone determine the continued growth of soccer in this country, they remain incredibly powerful entry points to the sport worthy of scholarly recognition.
