Interesting, multi-layered topic. And I’ve been getting paid to think about it.

Soccer, football, in the United Arab Emirates.

I am convinced it is by far the most popular sport among UAE citizens — the local Arabs (and a few others who have been naturalized). I am convinced nearly every adult male in the country will have an allegiance to one of the country’s 12 Pro League (top division) teams. You see them in clots, at games, wearing their long white robes. Really into the action. The serious fans usually will come with a couple of guys who are banging on a drum or playing a trumpet, and those guys will lead the occasional chant. These are serious fans paying close attention, shouting at referees and second-guessing coaches. Living and dying with every match.

But that doesn’t lead to full stadiums — even when the typical Pro League stadium here holds maybe 15,000 people. The one exception being where Al Jazira plays, the 45,000-capacity Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium.

Why aren’t those stadiums maxed out? I can suggest at least four reasons.

1. Even though Emiratis love soccer, they just don’t have the numbers to pack out six matches every weekend. Of the 7 million or so people in the country, only about 1 million are citizens. The Arabs who love the game. Something like 10 percent of the entire native population would have to go to a game every weekend to fill 90,000 seats of capacity (15,000 seats times six matches).

2. Gender issues. Women rarely attend soccer matches. Which is not unusual in lots of countries where soccer is big. Check a crowd in Italy sometime and 1) you will be struck by how small it is and 2) you will be struck by how few women are in the stands. So those 1 million Emiratis the clubs are chasing? Cut that in half. When it comes to fans actually in the stands, you’re probably pursuing about 500,000 customers. And even less than that, because boys under the age of 7 or 8 don’t seem to go to matches.

3. Western expat indifference. Most of the Westerners here are British. With maybe Australians and Yanks next in line. The Brits, almost to a person, already have a team they follow, and it’s almost always in the Premier League back in England, and they typically consider the Pro League beneath an acceptable caliber of play to engage their interests. I have the idea that live soccer is live soccer … but I am in the minority, it seems. Also,  Aussies and Yanks and Canadians aren’t exactly hard-core soccer fans. Thus, very few Westerners will be seen at Pro League matches.

4. All-other-expat indifference. The overwhelmingly number of guys here from the subcontinent and east Asia … could hardly have been more carefully chosen for the levels of their home disinterest in soccer. Consider: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines. Those four countries (in that order) probably account for about 80 percent of the entire population here, and soccer is an insignificant (or nearly invisible) sport in all of those countries. Now, if you stage a cricket match involving guys from the subcontinent, you could fill the Rose Bowl. But soccer? Uh, no.

5. A bonus explanation. Every match here is televised. And not in some rinky-dink fashion. Glorious color (might be high-def, for all I know), with five or six cameras, tons of replays — and you can watch a match in the air-conditioned comfort of your own home.  Why go to the stadium and sit in unpleasant conditions when you can stay home and see replays — including from the other match(es) of the day? It’s similar to what is going on with the NFL — why the hassle when TV is so good?

Anyway, I am convinced that sports fans here — the Emiratis, anyway — hold strong and well-informed opinions on domestic football. That it is by far the most significant sports topic among them, and their league is unrivaled by any other sport when it comes to money spent, professionalism and emotional resonance with the nation’s citizens.