The greatest prize for the Greatest Footballing Nation

The 2010 FIFA Football World Cup under way in South Africa holds by far the greatest bounty of GSN Global Cup points.

Thanks to the enormous popularity  of the game (214 countries took part in the 3-year-long qualifying process), plus the added weighting bonus for a team sport (see How it works), the Football World Cup offers 4.500 GSN weighted points up for grabs.

 

Considering that the 2009 Global Cup winners, the USA, earned  7.313 points, and that the World Cup-winning nation will pocket 1.000 points, it’s easy to see how success in South Africa could make a huge difference to any country’s Global Cup placing.

 

We looked up the top ten countries in 2009: if we add 1.000 points for a World Cup victory to the 2009 total of those among them that could have a legitimate chance of lifting the trophy, here’s the effect it would have:

-  Germany: they would still finish 3^rd, but only 473 points behind Russia

-  England (Great Britain): they would jump from 6^th to 4^th place, edging past China

-  Italy: they would grab 4^th place ahead of China too, moving up 4 places

-  Spain: they would move from 10^th to 7^th

-  The Aussies….ok, they would move up to 7^th from 9^th , but.

And the USA, of course, would stretch their lead even more, burying 2^nd place Russia under an avalanche of points (2.353 to be precise).

 

What about other serious World Cup contenders? Winning in South Africa would propel Argentina from 33^rd to 15^th place in the Global Cup ranking, while Brazil would jump from 18^th to 9^th place.

 

Here’s how World Cup victory would affect the 2010 Global Cup ranking (as of May 31^st):

- Germany, Switzerland, South Korea (…), Australia (…again), Great Britain, would all jump in 1^st place

- Italy would leap from 14^th to 2^nd

- The Netherlands from 16^th to 3^rd

And the USA, of course, the same as above!

 

So we at GSN will be keeping a close watch on all those countries digging for football, and Global Cup, gold in South Africa.