12/22/24
May 10, 2007
Best footballing nations per capita: International sides ranked by their FIFA points per head of population.
"We're not Brazil, we're Northern Ireland" etc.
posted by JJ at 04:08 AM on May 10, 2007
It would be interesting to see it calculated by active players, if it was possible to come up with a definition you could then measure in enough countries. Full-time professionals wouldn't really do it, would it?
posted by Abiezer at 05:28 AM on May 10, 2007
Most of these per-capita measures are bullshit... which doesn't stop people from trotting them out to "prove" whatever point they want to make. A more correct analysis would be beyond the mathematical comprehension of the masses, I'm afraid.
posted by Amateur at 05:46 AM on May 10, 2007
Amateur - I started thinking about all the ways in which these numbers were statistically meaningless and about what you would have to do to give them something worth looking at, but then I thought that maybe, for all that jiggery pokery, you'd end up getting pretty similar results in terms of the overall ranking. Still, at least it facilitated the use of the expression "jiggery pokery".
posted by JJ at 06:03 AM on May 10, 2007
Nothing like a little jiggery pokery with hard numbers. The six most populated countries fill out the bottom six slots. Given this, my general apprehension of statistical studies, and the fact that I am American, I am dismissing this study as, uh, flibberty-gibberty.
posted by The Crafty Sousepaw at 06:18 AM on May 10, 2007
Yeah, Brazil sucks at football. See!
posted by 86 at 07:44 AM on May 10, 2007
Largely meaningless "statistics" given that the largest nation is 300 times bigger than the smallest in terms of population but there weren't 300 times more FIFA points available.
posted by squealy at 08:33 AM on May 10, 2007
I think this study was conducted by the same dudes who did the racial bias study on NBA refs. Neither one makes any sense.
posted by yay-yo at 10:05 AM on May 10, 2007
Most of these per-capita measures are bullshit... The same could be said of the FIFA rankings ... making this measure a double dose, or perhaps bullshit squared.
posted by holden at 11:02 AM on May 10, 2007
"jiggery pokery" That some kind of British porn?
posted by SummersEve at 01:19 PM on May 10, 2007
There are only 5,000,0000 Scots? There are 84,000,000 Germans, but only 40,000,000 Spaniards? I like lists.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 02:03 PM on May 10, 2007
I like lists. Top 5 Weeds:
- Weedy McSmokey
- Mary Jane
- Goldenrod
- Poison Ivy
- Kudzu (it kind of grows on you)
posted by billsaysthis at 11:43 AM on May 11, 2007
Well I wouldn't expect the USA to score very high on that list. Soccer has to compete with a lot of other sports for players. Also, due to the weird fact that the universities, colleges, high schools and other academic sports programs refuse to be part of FIFA's American affiliate, the USSF, you have a lot of players out there who don't get counted in the official statistics.
posted by dave2007 at 12:10 AM on May 12, 2007
Wow, NI are doing well. And I suppose 4th isn't too bad for us lot. USA; could do better