Top 10 Most Valuable International Teams 2009 – Are FIFA Deliberately Greasing Their Path To WC2010?

In the aftermath of FIFA’s controversial late decision to seed the play-offs for World Cup qualification in Europe, a large part of the debate has focussed on FIFA President Sepp Blatter and co’s motives for the ruling.

With so dubiously late an announcement and such an obvious lack of transparency on the matter, FIFA stand accused of attempting to weight the playoffs in favour of the larger nations, whose glamour and appeal also translate into increased leverage when it comes to negotiating lucrative sponsorship deals. “The business of the big teams controls everything,” bemoaned Ireland manager Giovanni Trapattoni, and he is not alone in thinking that FIFA, with their decision to seed the playoffs, are trying to ease the financially stronger nations’ path to South Africa 2010.

Now without a direct line into FIFA HQ it is hard to either prove or disprove this theory. But the matter does bring to light one question: which nations are the most financially valuable to FIFA?

Futebol Finance recently took it upon themselves to look into the matter and have released a list of the 10 most valuable international teams in world football. To perform the study, Futebol Finance assessed the economic rights and estimated values of 25 players used by each international team in the qualifying campaign for the 2010 World Cup. Added up, the economic values of these players yielded the following list of the 10 most valuable international teams in the world for 2009:

1, Spain – 510 million Euros (FIFA ranking 2nd)
2, Brazil – 450 million Euros (FIFA ranking 1st)
3, France – 440 million Euros (FIFA ranking 10th)
4, England – 420 million Euros (FIFA ranking 7th)
5, Italy – 400 million Euros (FIFA ranking 4th)
6, Argentina – 390 million Euros (FIFA ranking 8th)
7, Portugal – 340 million Euros (FIFA ranking 17th)
8, Germany – 290 million Euros (FIFA ranking 4th=)
9, Netherlands – 280 million Euros (FIFA ranking 3rd)
10, Russia – 210 million Euros (FIFA ranking 6th)

A couple of observations based on this list:

1, Before FIFA’s announcement to seed the playoffs at the end of September 2009, no fewer than 6 of the 10 most valuable international teams listed here were in danger of either needing a playoff to qualify or of missing out on the World Cup altogether. Only Spain, Brazil, England and the Netherlands’ places in South Africa were assured.

2, Only one of the 10 most valuable international teams is ranked outside FIFA’s own top 10 (Portugal).

3, As has panned out in the latter stages of qualifying, 3 of the teams listed above will need to go through a playoff to make the 2010 World Cup (Russia, Portugal, France). Meanwhile Argentina are also in jeopardy of not making it South Africa depending on the result in their final group game against Uruguay in Montevideo.

4, An open draw based on the European teams in danger at the time FIFA decided to seed the playoffs, could have resulted in Italy, France, Portugal and Russia – some 1.4 billion Euros worth of talent – in direct competition for 2 World Cup places.

Whatever their economic value, there is only one way to make the World Cup and that is by accumulating enough points to advance through your designated group. Or by hosting it of course, but that’s a separate issue. Faced with the prospect of 6 of the world’s most economically valuable teams missing out on South Africa 2010, did FIFA convene in Rio da Janeiro at the end of September ‘09 with the specific aim of greasing the wheels for the bigger teams?

We will all draw our own conclusions on that one. But one thing for certain is that there are distinct economic advantages for FIFA if the likes of France, Italy and Portugal are at the World Cup ahead of teams like Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovakia and Ireland.

Argentina, Brazil, England, FIFA, Football and Finance, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Money Money Money, Portugal, Russia, Sepp Blatter, Spain