Sport in Italy Sport in Italy Sport in Italy has a long tradition. In several sports, both individual and team, Italy has good representation and many successes. Football is the most popular sport in Italy. Italy won the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and is (along with Germany) currently the second most successful football team in World Cup history, after Brazil, having won four FIFA World Cup championships. Basketball, volleyball, and cycling are the next most popular/played sports, with Italy having a rich tradition in all three. Italy also has strong traditions in swimming, water polo, rugby union, tennis, athletics, fencing and Formula One.
Sport in Germany team sport in Germany and when a study conducted by Repucom asked people which sport besides football they preferred a total of 33% voted "Handball" while Basketball came in second with 25% of the votes, Ice hockey got 24% and Volleyball got 11%. Especially the national team attracts a lot of attention and around 16 million TV viewers watched as Germany beat Poland in the 2007 world cup as well as 13 million during the 2016 European cup final. It is also the second most played team sport in Germany with approximately 750,000 active registered players around the country as