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Shooting for World Cup glory

6 June 2006

NICOSIA — Brazil are the overwhelming favourite to win the 2006 World Cup, a recent Synovate survey has found. And it's no surprise that Brazilian star Ronaldinho is tipped to be named the tournament's best player. But Synovate also learned that a significant number of women tune in to the games so they can enjoy watching the men in shorts!

Synovate surveyed 7,835 respondents in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Argentina, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Poland, Serbia, Ukraine, Japan, Korea and Australia – all countries that have qualified for this year's finals in Germany.

Brazil were seen as favourites by 42 percent of those surveyed, with hosts Germany a distant second at 10 percent, followed by Argentina, England, France and Sweden. Partisanship was evident in some countries, as respondents in Brazil, Argentina, France and the UK saw their own teams as favourites. Interestingly, however, Germans were more likely to see Brazil as lifting the trophy than their own team by a margin of almost two to one.

That finding does not surprise Harald Hasselmann, Managing Director of Synovate Germany. "Very often Germans do not see their team as favourites before the start of a World Cup. But many of them still hope that the German team will do better than expected – as happened in the last World Cup, when Germany reached the final."

Almost half of respondents predicted that Ronaldinho would win the Golden Ball, awarded to the competition's best player. Other contenders trailed far behind: France's Zinedine Zidane and Thierry Henry polled 4 percent each, with the former favoured by 20 percent of that country's fans. Meanwhile, a slightly higher proportion of UK fans compared to their French counterparts gave the nod to Henry, who plays for English side Arsenal. Next with 3 percent came Argentina's Lionel Messi and England's Wayne Rooney, both of whom, ironically, are struggling to make the competition due to injury.

Synovate also asked fans to pick a description that best matched their national team. Brazilians saw their side as "exciting" – a characteristic that the Japanese, Koreans and Argentines also attributed to their teams.

On the other hand, 65 percent of Poles, 41 percent of Germans and 40 percent of the French described their teams as "all talk and no action." Stephane Courqueux, Managing Director of Synovate France, attributes the less than impressive image of the 1998 World Cup holders to their lacklustre form. But he adds: "The French team had a poor image and was strongly criticised by the press before the 1998 World Cup. We all know what happened then. Wait and see.?"

Some respondents were even less complimentary, with 15 percent of Czechs, 11 percent of Koreans and even 9 percent of Brazilians viewing their sides as "thugs." And 11 percent of Germans and Serbs, along with 9 percent of the British, wrote off their teams as "whiners" – although it must be noted that Synovate did not filter out Scottish, Welsh and Irish supporters from the UK respondents!

A majority of respondents – 58 percent – said they did not normally follow football, but made an exception for the World Cup. And almost one-third of women surveyed admitted that they just like watching the men in shorts, with Brazilian women topping the list at 62 percent, followed by 44 percent of Serbs and 42 percent of Czechs. At the other end of the scale, only 4 percent of Japanese and 9 percent of Korean women acknowledged such base motives for viewing World Cup matches.

Some people also plan to take advantage of the World Cup as an excuse to avoid household chores, with several nationalities vying for top post among shirkers: The Serbs at 43 percent, the British at 41 percent, Brazilians at 40 percent, Czechs at 39 percent and Argentines at 37 percent. Japanese and Swedish respondents were the most dutiful, with only 10 and 12 percent respectively planning to use football as a pretext for avoiding life's mundane realities.

Finally, the World Cup poses a dilemma for some football fans: Whether to go to work and miss matches on TV. For around a quarter of Serb and Korean respondents, it's not much of a conundrum: They would call in sick to work in order to watch matches during working hours.

Kurt Thompson, Managing Director of Synovate Korea, says that football's increased popularity, following the national team's strong performance at the 2002 World Cup, could create a clash with the country's traditional strong work ethic: "As some of the games will be played during the middle of the night in Asia, I think that there will be a sudden wave of sickness in Korea!"

Curiosities

• Ronaldinho is the favourite to be named the tournament's best player in all but one country: Ukraine, whose own star, Andriy Shevchenko, gets the nod for that honour.
• 58 percent of Australians describe their team as 'dark horses' for the tournament – a case of optimism or a reflection of the sport's lower profile in that rugby, cricket and Australian Rules Football-mad country.
• 69 percent of respondents think footballers are overpaid, led by Brazil (95 percent) and closely followed by Germany and the UK (92 percent). Maybe that's why 43 percent of Brazilians would have loved to be a football player!