It's a good game for Latin America and Africa where all you have to do is to make a ball out of something and go outside and kick it around.
But it doesn't make sense in developed Europe which should develop greater taste in atheletics than soccer.
Those that bash soccer have never played it. I have played many different sports and soccer is a good game that requires good athletic skills.
When I was in Greece as a volunteer with the Athens Olympics the Greek media (and Greeks in general) ripped baseball to shreds calling it a boring sport of players running in circles. I remember one sports reporter with the comment "and Americans think soccer is boring!".