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.