It's bad news for Iran, USA and Argentina as their nations have been revealed as the most 'rooted against' in the upcoming world cup.

(series credit: nytimes)

Other headline news from the NYT's study is that USA believes USA are most likely to win the world cup, while the USA will be rooting squarely against the USA.

Australia and Japan are most enamoured by the beauty of the English game, while Argentina aren't massive fans at all. Argentina themselves face some pretty stiff rivalry from their South American neighbours, who all would much rather see Brazil triumph than the team in blue and white.



England fans are continuining to push Germany as massive rivals, while Germans themselves seem to have turned on Honduras - I have no idea why.

As an England fan it's interesting to note that the previous over-ambitiousness of the last few world cups, when Emile Heskey was first choice centre forward, has turned to no expectation whatsoever despite a team of more technically adept players. In fact we're the most pessimistic nation of all surveyed. Despite being consistently ranked in the top 10 teams in the world, England fans see their country's victory as less likely than South Koreans do their own country. Brazil, Spain and Argentina all believe themselves to be in with a chance and it's hard to disagree.



This level of statistical data is fascinating to see as a football fan and with 2014 being the first truly social World Cup the swathes of data will be flooding our network over the next month.

The whole world is watching, is the cliche, but the truth is 68% of the world's population will be - an impressive figure that far surpasses that of the olympics or the superbowl. 

(series credit: wearesocial)


'Real time fans' are the talk of the town and brands can expect the most opportunity to interact with APAC customers, the sheer weight of population dwarfing other regions. 


But the intensity of Latin America's football is reflected in their top engagement figures, 40% of viewers in those countries responding in real-time to the World Cup Matches.


A final figure of caution, for anyone making a prediction let alone a bet, the guy below has more World Cup goals to his name than Messi, Ronaldo and Rooney combined.

Papa Bouba Diop, goal-scorer extraordinnaire.