FIFA World Cup 2018: Why prosperous nations are more likely to play and win

The more a country and its society give liberty to its people to make choices for their lives, the more likely it is to be a World Cup winner

More than a seventh of humanity watched the 2014 final, where Germany became the champions with a lone goal in the extra time. Unarguably, this makes the 2018 World Cup the most to-be-watched sport tournament, and a question that becomes central to discussion in the office, over tea or lunch, and at parties, is this: Who will win this time?

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Juxtaposing the general development and economic progress of a country with its perceived chances of winning reveals that the probable semi-finalist teams would be the countries with better social and economic indicators. The world’s top betting players such as Ladbrokes, WilliamHill and 888sport have almost unanimously put Germany, Brazil, France, Spain and Argentina as top five, while Tunisia, Iran, Panama, South Korea and Saudi Arabia as the bottom five.

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Income, represented by gross national income per capita; health, represented by life expectancy at birth; and freedom to make one’s choices, represented by an index published in the World Happiness Report are the development indicators used. Though the oil-rich kingdom of Saudi Arabia has the highest per capita income among the 10, the top-five probables have better incomes (see Chart 1) than the least popular teams. It also turns out that the healthier the country, the better is its chance of winning (see Chart 2).

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The more a country and its society give liberty to its people to make choices for their lives, the more likely it is to be a World Cup winner. It must be noted that all these are correlations and not causal relations.

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Interestingly, only two of the 32 teams that are playing the finals are low human development countries, while a majority, 18, are highly developed (see Chart 4). The top-five probable winners are richer and developed than the average of the tournament’s 32 nations, which, in turn, are more prosperous than the global average.

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Will Sunil Chhetri surpass Villa's 59 goal record in his 100th match today?

After the match on Saturday he made an impassioned plea to all fans of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo, "abuse us, criticize us but please come to watch the Indian national team"

Sunil Chhetri, one of the greatest footballers the country has produced, will play his 100th international match today when India will take on Kenya in Intercontinental Cup at Mumbai Football Arena. Earlier, in his 99th match, he scored a hat-trick to seal the game for India against Chinese Taipei and equalled David Villa's record of 59 goals. After the match on Saturday, he made an impassioned plea to all fans of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo: “Abuse us, criticize us but please come to watch the Indian national team.” India cricket captain Virat Kohli was the first to support Chettri, urging sports lovers to come forward and watch the national football side play, in an instagram post.

With less than two weeks left for Fifa World Cup 2018 to begin and broadcasters urging fans of the 'beautiful game' to profess their love for their 'doosri country' via hashtags and advertisements, the nation's all-time highest goal-getter demanded some love and affection for their 'first country'.

What Sunil Chettri said in the twitter post

"To all of you who are fans of big European clubs and support European clubs with so much passion and sometimes you guys think that the level is not the same, so why do you waste your time? Agreed, the level is not the same, not even close but with our desire and determination, we will try our best to make your time worth," Chhetri's plea was not only about accepting where they stand but also what little they want from the fans. "To all of you, who have lost hope or don't have any hope in Indian football, we request you to come and watch us in the stadium," the skipper said. Chhetri also requested the critics of Indian football -- please abuse but make the 'Blue Tigers' feel relevant. "I mean it's not fun to criticise and abuse othe n internet. Come to the stadium, do it on our face, scream at us, shout at us, abuse us, who knows one day we might change you guys, you might start cheering for us. You guys have no idea how important you guys are and how important your support is," the skipper appealed.

"I request you all to please come ...Talk about the game, go back home, have discussions, make banners. Please get involved, this is an important time and juncture in Indian football and football in India needs you guys", Sunil Chettri further added.

What Sachin Tendulkar said in the twitter post

In a video posted on his official Twitter account, Tendulkar encouraged fans to support athletes, regardless of which sport they play, and said that it was really important that sports lovers stand behind them.

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