Congratulations to Sweden on winning this year’s World Cup … and also to France, Qatar, Uruguay, Norway, New Zealand and Switzerland for the same thing.
No, POLITICO hasn’t been engaging in match fixing, but we have been crunching the numbers to see how all 48 of this year’s World Cup participants rank in several other categories, and the countries mentioned above all did well. There are 10 EU countries taking part.
First of all, we took each country’s ranking from the world football governing body FIFA. In April, France was the number one country in the world, with Spain second and Argentina third, all the way down to New Zealand, which was the 85th-ranked country in the world and therefore the lowest-ranked team in the tournament.
Then, we looked at all 48 countries to see how they ranked in terms of five other categories:
— Gross domestic product per person. Qatar is the richest country in the competition, with the Democratic Republic of the Congo the poorest. That’s according to World Bank data for 2024 (the last year for which data is available).
— Political stability. Uruguay is the most stable country, according to the World Bank, with the Democratic Republic of the Congo again in last place.
— Corruption. Haiti has the highest level of perceived corruption of any country taking part in the World Cup, with Norway and New Zealand scoring lowest (something New Zealand might have to get used to!). These figures came from Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index.
— Life expectancy. Switzerland is the winner here, with Democratic Republic of the Congo again at the other end of the scale. These are World Bank figures for men, as this is the men’s World Cup.
— Happiness. Swedes are the happiest, according to the 2025 World Happiness Report, with Haitians ranking the least happy. There is no happiness data for Cape Verde, but it looks lovely, so let’s assume everyone there is permanently cheerful.
There are, however, caveats: England and Scotland may both have teams at the World Cup, but the figures in all but one of the categories are for the entire U.K. And Curaçao — the smallest country ever to qualify for the World Cup — is covered by figures for the Netherlands in three of the rankings. So apologies to our Scottish and Curaçaoan readers.
Let’s dive in…
The Moneybags Derby — the richest group-stage game, according to GDP per capita — will be Qatar vs. Switzerland on June 13. The poorest game in terms of GDP will take place on June 28, when the Democratic Republic of the Congo takes on Uzbekistan.
The most politically stable game in the group stages will be when Czechia plays South Korea on June 18, while the most unstable game will be Iran against Egypt on June 27. France, the number one-ranked team at the tournament, is the least stable EU country taking part (as Charles de Gaulle once said: “How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?“).
FIFA is no stranger to accusations of corruption, but the governing body isn’t in these figures. The Cleanest Cup will take place on June 20 between Sweden and the Netherlands, while the Corruption Clash will (yet again) be when the Democratic Republic of the Congo takes on Uzbekistan.
Qatar vs. Switzerland may not be the most exciting match on the slate, but it will be the one with the players who might live longest (in general, not just during the match). Alas, the match between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uzbekistan is at the other end of the scale.
The happiest game of the World Cup will be Sweden vs. the Netherlands on June 20 (that’s also the only group-stage game between two EU members), while the game between Haiti and Morocco on June 25 may well be interrupted by floods of tears and bouts of introspection.
The alternative World Cup rankings
Source: Viral Showbiz Pinay
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