Quote: DaveO "That is being very generous towards RU. The reason the world cup was boring was not because it is the nature of the game but because the teams chose to play it that way adopting a safety first mentality and the rules allow this to happen.
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But the success or otherwise of a sporting tournament doesn't depend on the quality of the play.
In football for instance, the real turning point in English footballing history that turned football from a popular sport associated with working class men and hooligans, to a huge multimillion pound business that led to the Premier League, major TV deals etc, was the 1990 World Cup, football exploded after that.
But that was actually the most boring world cup ever, there were hardly any goals scored. England struggled through the group stages only scoring 2 goals.