The game of soccer has long been hailed as the world's most popular sport. It is played all over the world, with millions of people regularly attending games and billions more watching on television.

Many people also play the game at an amateur level. According to a survey conducted in 2001 by the International Federation of Association Football, over 240 million people in more than 200 countries around the world regularly play the game.

The most important soccer tournament in the world is the World Cup, an event which is viewed by twice the number of people who watch the Summer Olympics.

According to an article in The New York Times, the 2006 World Cup drew a TV audience of 30 billion people over the length of the tournament.

The competition is appropriately titled since the game is indeed celebrated globally. One of the reasons the sport is so widely popular worldwide is because its rules are simple and it does not require much equipment. In many Caribbean countries, it is commonplace to see young boys playing the game with a soda can or bottle, using two mismatched items to mark the boundaries of a goalpost.

While the sport has been criticized by some for its slower pace, lack of action and low scoring as compared to other sports, it is praised by others for its emphasis on teamwork and its display of defensive skills.

Soccer fans are among the world's most passionate, sometimes to their detriment. The game has been known to unite and divide families, communities and even nations.

In The Bahamas though, as in the United Sates, the game has certainly seen its fair share of neglect, with many young people favoring basketball and athletics as their sports of choice.

It is time that The Bahamas gets a functioning national soccer league up and running.

The Grand Bahama Football League is currently defunct and at present, the only program operating on the island is the Youth Development League under the direction of Mark Hardy and an executive team.

Many of the female teams that were prepared to play last season have become disillusioned at the lack of organization and attention given to the sport.

The country is currently ranked at 148th on the FIFA World Ranking scale. In many of the top international tournaments, the country either did not enter or did not qualify.

In more recent times, however, the Saturday morning practice sessions have become more and more full, mirroring the gradual increase in popularity of the sport in the US.

Up until 1989, the United States had not been represented at the World Cup in 40 years, but the US has sent a team to compete in every World Cup since then, and quite successfully so. The US women's national team has won two World Cups and American

soccer teams are now being rated among the best in the world. American Major League Soccer has been in existence for over 10 years. With the recent signing of British soccer superstar David Beckham to the LA Galaxy team, the hope has been expressed that this could mean an increased interest in the sport in the United States. After all, the MLS games have less than desirable spectator numbers. With all the hype surrounding Beckham's introduction to the US, the soccer world eagerly waits to see if this expectation will be met.

Perhaps, now that the sport seems to be at its most popular, we can encourage more young persons to show an interest in the sport and perhaps it will attain the level of prominence that other sports have in the eyes of our nation's youth.