MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

The football industry involves 4% of the world population

270 milion people are involved in football

A total of 265 million male and female players and a further five million referees, coaches and other officials, a grand total of 270 million people, or 4% of the world's population, are involved in football.

These are the impressive findings of the Big Count 2006, a FIFA survey of its member associations (207 at the time), which, having first been conducted in 2000, was repeated last year with the same criteria to provide an interesting insight into the growth of football worldwide. "Football's popularity remains undiminished and is actually increasing," reflected FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter with satisfaction on the results of the survey. "If you count the relatives and close friends of active participants in football, who share in their passion for the game as fans and support them in other ways, the total number is even more impressive: well over a billion people worldwide are involved in football - at all levels of society and across all borders." Here are some of the most important findings of the Big Count 2006: The overall total of 265 million male and female players is almost 10% higher than the number recorded six years ago (242 million). Of the 265 million, 26 million or around 10% are women. Since 2000, the number of registered male and female footballers has increased by around 23% to over 38 million. The growth in women's football is particularly striking, with the number of registered players up 54% to 4.1 million, while the number of registered players in the men's game has likewise seen an increase of 21% to 34.2 million. The number of unregistered occasional players, which was first recorded in the previous Big Count study, is up 7% to 226 million. There is now a combined total of over one million futsal and beach soccer players (both male and female). In terms of regional differences, the AFC (85 million footballers) has a clear lead over the other five confederations (UEFA: 62 million; CAF: 46 million; CONCACAF: 43 million; CONMEBOL: 27 million; OFC: 0.5 million). However, if the proportion of footballers to the total population is taken into account, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL and UEFA are ahead of the other confederations with 7% each. The number of clubs (301,000) is similar to the figure recorded in 2000. That said, the total number of teams (1.7 million) has increased by approximately 200,000. The data for Big Count 2006 was collated in the first half of 2006 using a traditional questionnaire and an online survey and achieved a response rate of over 75%.