"Bangladeshi players can't hit big sixes regularly as most of them have grown up eating only ‘khichudi’ and no orange juice!" After that remark from the country's leading all-rounder, this writer was thinking for some time if there is any correlation between sports and economic condition of a country. Does the above remark best suit the condition of football performance in Bangladesh? And there is now a massive craze stirring up here revolving round the World Cup Football 2014 which is under way.
Sporting success of a country depends on variables like population. If we take population size into consideration, 15 of the 32 teams participating in this World Cup are among the 32 most populous countries in the world. Only 11 of the participants are below top 60 in terms of population. So, densely-populated countries like India can easily choose a pool of talents from its large population. But it can't because quality of population is another important fact to be taken into consideration. Population with problems of health and education can't come to any use for a country. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) are some of the measurements of quality of population and work as significant variables of sporting performance of a country.
A country with higher GDP can ensure better health, education and development of talents. The country can also invest in sport infrastructure, equipment, foreign coaches, participation in competitions abroad and operational logistics. For this reason, Europe and South America are the two most prominent soccer continents unquestionably.
Eighteen of the 32 teams which are participating in this World Cup are having the largest GDPs in the world, and only 8 of the 32 teams are below the top 60 in GDP if we take the overall GDP of those countries into consideration. But a high GDP per capita does not necessarily guarantee soccer dominance because only 14 of the nations in the World Cup are among the top 50 in GDP/cap. And, only Germany and Switzerland are among the top 10 ranked soccer nations which hold their position within the top 20 in GDP/cap. Besides, countries holding the 79th, 46th, 55th, 60th, and 85th positions according to GDP per caps are among top 10 soccer teams. Soccer giants like Brazil, Uruguay and Colombia are among the worst World Cup nations in terms of income deficiency.
Similarly, soccer inferiority is not the outcome of a low GDP per cap. Almost 25 per cent of the teams in this World Cup like Bosnia, Algeria, Honduras, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and Ivory Coast rank 100th or below in GDP/cap.
So it is obvious that the GDP size has two side effects on the question of qualifying for the World Cup. The most interesting part is that two of the largest nations China and India with their massive GDPs are yet to be in race in the World Cup. Both the countries had qualified for the World Cup once in the blue moon. China went on to play in 2002 edition but lost all their matches and got eliminated at the very group stage. India also qualified for 1954 edition but did not participate because they could not unfortunately afford soccer boots!
The writer is a 4th year student of BBA, Management, Faculty of Business Studies, DU. rigen.du@gmail.com
World Cup 2014 and soccer prowess
Foyjul Islam Rigen | Published: June 24, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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