Red and yellow dominated the final match of the worldcup with a remarkable 14 cards in these colours shown in the 120 minutes, and red-yellow eventually also taking the trophy, just as Paul predicted. One goal was enough for Spain, demonstrating once again their efficiency: Spain scored 8 of the tournament’s 145 goals in their seven matches to the title. The following map shows, how the nations compare in terms of goals – from Germany’s 16 (with Thomas Müller taking the Golden Boot) to Algeria’s. The second maps in contrast shows all goals conceded, from North Korea’s unfortunate 12 to Portugal and Switzerland’s 1:
Tag Archives: soccer
(click map for a larger view)Worldcup Economics
The Football Worldcup is claimed to have a significant impact on the global economy, one of the reasons why so many countries are keen on hosting this event. Others are looking at the relationship between GDP and performance of teams at the Football Worldcup, which is well worth mapping. Here is a map that shows the participating countries of the 2010 Football Worldcup resized according to their Gross Domestic Product. In addition, all countries are coloured in different shadings of green – the darker green, the further the respective national team has proceeded in this year’s tournament. Obviously, economic wealth alone can’t buy success:
(click map for a larger view)The previous map is of course missing out all other countries of the world. To complete the picture, the following map shows the same economic data (GDP), this time for the whole world, with the 32 nations participating in the 2010 Worldcup being coloured white, and those who missed out in black. The winners so far are marked with yellow stars (the number of stars indicating the numbers of trophys that a team has won at FIFA Worldcup tournaments):
(click map for a larger view)Even if there may be links between economic wealth and success in football, this alone can hardly be the whole explanation for a team’s fortune. Interesting nevertheless to see, how the football world compares beyond the borders of the game.
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2010 Football Worldcup Maps
The Football Worldcup has entered its hot phase: The teams for the round of the last 16 is complete, and people around the world are embracing for the all-deciding playoffs. Well, not quite around the world. From the participants perspective, half of the 32 teams are already heading home. It may be half of the teams, but these do only represent some people at home: Many of the countries in the round of the last 16 are quite populous countries, as the following map reveals. It shows the worldcup participating countries resized according to their population size. The additional colour key shows quickly which countries are still in the tournament: Green represents those in the second round, whereas the red countries are out after the first round.
(click map for a larger view)The map also confirms the inequality of the world of football. Not only the people of South Africa are no longer seeing their team compete, but most of the African competitors had to leave the first worldcup on the African continent early. The unequal shape of the football world is once more confirmed here, even if some of the big players already struggled (note the red patches in Europe).
Looking at population, one more map shows how few people are actually represented at the 2010 Worldcup: The following map is a world population cartogram (with updated population figures for 2010). This time, red countries are those who are (more or less) neutral observers of this event. These countries do not take part in the 2010 tournament – far more than half of the world population. Green countries are the participants (all of them, even those who are already out again), and an equal area map is added as an insect to see how some of the countries strike out with their large population:
(click map for a larger view)Nevertheless, it remains a global event, with the largest audience that a sport event can get these days. So there is a lot to cheer and boo even beyond the borders of the participating nations. And in the end it’s only a game…isn’t it?
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South Africa: A people’s view
The ball is rolling, and the football world looks at South Africa and the South African people, who keep the world entertained with the unique Vuvuzela sounds. There are an estimated 49,320,000 living in the country, with an area of 1 221 037 square km this makes a population density of 41/km2. But the population is far from being equally distributed across the country. The following special worldcup edition of worldmapper’s gridded population cartograms shows where people are really living, and in which dimension the cities strike out in the population distribution. For easy orientation, all worldcup host cities are labelled. In addition elevation information is added to the map, so that one can see how many people live at which elevations.
Click here for a larger viewThe content on this page has been created by Benjamin Hennig. Please contact me for further details on the terms of use.
The shape of the Football World
Jabulani, the official ball at this year’s Football Worldcup in South Africa is almost making its rounds across the pitch – only a few days to go until the first kickoff. But how much is it a real “World” cup? This map shows, whose game it has been since the first Worldcup in 1930. The countries in this map are resized according to the number of participations in the FIFA Worldcups (including the 2010 Worldcup). This year’s participants are coloured white, non-participants are black. The stars in a country indicate how often this country has won the Fifa Worldcup so far: All former champions are back on stage in South Africa.
Click here for a larger view of the map
Despite having 208 national associations in the Fifa, the map reveals the domination of Europe and South America in the tournament (in participation, as well as in the world cup winners), those regions with football being among the most popular sports. This inequality in the football worldcup can be explained by having a look at how the qualification process is organised: “For each tournament, FIFA decides the number of places awarded to each of the continental zones beforehand, generally based on the relative strength of the confederations’ teams” (see here). The football may be of global significance, but it is far from being a global game. The world map of football looks different than the map of the world…
The content on this page has been created by Benjamin Hennig. Please contact me for further details on the terms of use.