Brazil’s Silver Lining

Brazil Fans

There is no question that Brazil’s loss to Germany was a tremendous blow to the nation’s morale.  As a unit, Brazilians were embarrassed and devastated over their country’s loss.  However, despite what one may expect, Brazilians everywhere let out a collective sigh of relief as Mario Gotze scored the one and only goal of the final game, leading Germany to a victory over Argentina.

Though it may be hard to believe, Brazilians gathered to watch the final game at the Maracaña stadium, celebrating the German’s win in the final.  This win made Germany the first team hailing from Europe to take home a World Cup that was played in North or South America.

Post-game, a Brazilian fan was quoted, saying, “ Argentina winning would have been the worst thing I could think of.”  While this may seem like a harsh sentiment, many would say Brazilians were warranted in this attitude.  Leading up to the final, tens of thousands of fans from Argentina had flooded Brazil, setting up camps wherever they could and consistently heckling Brazilians over their crushing loss to Germany, followed shortly after by their loss to the Netherlands.

On the other hand, Argentina also had reason to be enthused.  This year was the first time Argentina had made it to the World Cup Final in the past 24 years, thanks to Lionel Messi, their super-star player who many revere as the world’s best soccer player.

German Fans

The interesting thing about this rivalry between Brazil in Argentina is that many fans seem to be unaware of the grounds for it in the first place.  “We hate them, and we don’t even know why,” commented Flávia Torezani, a Brazilian fan who cheered until her voice was lost for Germany over Argentina.  “They’re our rivals. We don’t want them to win, ever.  This was almost like Brazil winning today.”

While Brazil is still licking their wounds from their loss, they were able to at least rally some camaraderie and cheer on the falling of their rival.  To read more about Brazil’s sentiments on the cup at large and the final fate of Argentina, check out this article.

Does Winning the World Cup Ensure a Detriment to the Economy?

Fifa World Cup 2014

When it comes to the World Cup, one would think that the winning country would benefit the most- in terms of recognition, bragging rights, attention, tourism in the future, and so on.  However, an interesting article in Forbesmagazine suggests that the winner may not really take all when it comes to economic growth following the game.

In a gathering of data by the World Bank, results yielded that in six out of the past seven world cups, the winning country saw a decline in their gross domestic product following the year of their win.  This interesting pattern dates back to 1986, when Argentina won the cup, and has continued every year, aside from Spain’s win in 2010.  That being said, the only growth Spain saw in GDP was by 0.1%, much lower than one would expect for the country that had just won the world cup.

Worse yet, is that out of the countries that did experience a decline in GDP following their world-cup win, 5 out the 7 total experienced a continued decline in the second year after their winning of the world cup.  Interestingly enough, it seems that this trend is already on its way to taking hold once again.  Between this year’s finalists, Argentina is already seeing an improvement in their economy- seeing a 3.0% growth in 2013, while Germany only saw a 0.4% increase that same year.

The German Soccer Team of 2014

Experts are speculating on why this is the case, and are quick to say that only 7 years of observation is not enough data to solidify this pattern.  Some economists believe that the time the people of a country spend watching the world cup results in a detriment of the economy, as people are not focused on their careers and their daily lives. That being said, this does not seem like something that could be that severely detrimental to the economy, and for such an extended period of time.  Not to mention, this trend is solely relative to the World Cup- it is not seen during the Olympics, NBA finals, the Superbowl, or any other widely-viewed sporting events.

Only time will tell when it comes to learning more about this pattern and its causes.  To learn more about this interesting trend, check out the Forbes article here.