Uh-oh.... few teams and one finalist bout to get bashed.....
Hall Of Shame?
The South American nation may have left the World Cup after an unimpressive group stage that left ex-goalie Chilavert in an apoplectic fit, but at least the Guarani made it home clutching something more than just mediocrity.
It may not be the sort of thing that players will want to frame and give to their Mums, but Paraguay has been judged to have been the champions of an alternative to FIFA’s Fair Play: the Unfair Play Award.
The news comes from software company British office of Information Builders (IBI), the verdict being reached through a series of weighted indicators that included the following variables beloved by amoral players: dives, feigned injuries, referee intimidation, tantrums and inability or lack of desire to sing national anthems.
With all thirty-two squads having been followed, the champions of each category are;
Dives: Italy (32) Tantrums: France (28) Feigned Injury: Paraguay (12) Anthem Silence: Serbia and Montenegro (31). There was stiff competition for the referee bullying award; Croatia, France, Italy and Portugal all having shunted various officials back with extreme invasions of personal space five times apiece, although Croatia are strictly winners as they managed all five incidents in only three matches
Information Builders have baptised their ratings as the ‘IBI Foul Play Index’ and Paraguay can hold their heads high/low leaving Germany with an index of 45, closely followed by finalists Italy (40) with Holland, the Ivory Coast and Portugal all with 37.
Trinidad and Tobago get a pat on the back for being the best behaved team in the tournament, with a mere 14; a paltry four dives, three tantrums, two faked injuries and only three players not booming out the national anthem. Brazil, Costa Rica and Sweden were all good boys with 15.
On the nationalistic lungful side, Angola, Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Spain all scored perfect marks with each and every player – regardless of how cat-matingly off-key the voices were – giving their larynxes a workout for the homeland.
Going on statistical extrapolation from what’s been recorded so far, Sunday’s final between France and Italy should see the Azzurri on flying form and Les Bleus providing the obstreperous Gallic fits to go along.
Hopefully the stats will prove evergreen the quote attributed to Mark Twain but actually coming from Queen Victoria’s favourite statesman, Benjamin Disraeli, “There are three types of lies; lies, damn lies and statistics.”
http://www.informationbuilders.co.uk/ontheball/index.html
