@johnmark @skinnylatte @Bronwyn meh? I take the semantic point; it's pretty silly in "foot"ball in particular, since no one else even really plays the game.
But if you had a FIBA Club World Cup akin to UEFA Champion's League, does anyone really doubt the NBA titleists would be both the regular winners (by larger margins than the US wins the Olympics) and regularly the most-watched games outside the US? Among other things, NBA club teams cherry pick the rest of the world's talent.