The Indo-Europeans: The Undisputed World Champions

The whole world might play soccer (I’m Australian and I prefer soccer to football), but only a tiny portion of nations have ever held the World Cup aloft or even played off for the honour. Of the 202 nations that FIFA have given a world ranking to, only 8 have ever won the World Cup the 19 times the festival of soccer has been held and only 12 have ever made the final.

But here’s what’s really interesting: if we organise nations by language group, only 2 language groups have ever won the World Cup and 4 reached the final.

And even more interesting: if we organise nations by language family, of the 20 or so that exist (some are disputed), only 1, the Indo-European, has ever won the World Cup and only 2 have ever reached the final (those pesky Uralic Hungarians the only thorn in the Indo-European side).

If ever there was proof that language influences sporting ability, we have it here.

2 thoughts on “The Indo-Europeans: The Undisputed World Champions

  1. Simple then really, the Socceroos just need to brush up on their Spanish to have a shot at victory in the World Cup.

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