Soccer and American football inspire fans all over the world. On the very first look, the two sports are very different. In American football, the ball is usually in the hand and is either thrown or caught. In soccer, on the other hand, it ideally sticks to the foot, is passed or kicked. 

Despite the differences, American football can learn a lot from soccer and vice versa. ELF Commissioner Patrick Esume and Rouven Kasper from German soccer club VfB Stuttgart explain some opportunities at the ELF press conference for the Championship Game 2025.

Patrick Esume: "It doesn't exist like this"

“What I miss in US sport compared to soccer, for example, is the commitment of the fans. There are motivated fans themselves,” explains Esume. That makes soccer unique, and there is no other sport like this. “That's unbelievable. When you walk into a soccer stadium, and it's a derby or something like that, you see choreography that gives me goosebumps when I think about it, because there's nothing like it.” 

According to him, US sport takes a different approach: “I think US sport and American football just has a different quality and manages to create goosebumps moments in a different way.”

On the other hand, he would like to see some elements of the US sport in soccer: “But the most important difference, which I would sometimes also like to see in soccer, is that it becomes more of a family event. It's not just me coming to the stadium, parking my car, running in. Then I buy three beers and watch the game.”

The soccer match event is too short for the former coach. After the game, some fans leave the stadium hastily to avoid stuck in traffic. That doesn't happen in American football. “The fan is actually entertained for half a day or a whole day. They usually even bring the whole family with them,” says Esume.

Watch the full press conference here!

Kasper wants to learn from football

VfB Marketing and Sales Director Rouven Kasper wants to learn one thing in particular from American football: “Hosting and staging major events perfectly is something we can also learn from American sports. How to stage events.”

Kasper sees great financial potential in the length of the event: “We can already see what it means commercially if we leave the stadium open for half an hour longer. In soccer, we know exactly how high we can scale up.” He sees even greater potential in American football.

Soccer could also learn from the way the spectator can touch the people and the sport. “How close you are to the athlete, cameras in front of the dressing room, where we still have our blinkers on a bit in soccer, where we say no, not too close.”

Kasper is pleased to be able to learn from a major event like this: “We can learn a lot from each other and scale up together.”

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