Biggest underachievers in world football?

[Gully]

It's like charging people £500 a night to stay at a shit little B&B. Sounds impressive but when you get there it's a f***ing great disappointment.

I would hope that no Englishman is mug enough to pay £500 to stay at a shit little B&B...but of course I am unable to pass comment on whether anyone from other parts of the UK would be willing to do so.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

Has to be Spain.

Never made a WC final despite having produced wonderfully talented footballers over the years.

Italy have cheated the most to win their cups.

 

[Simster]

Italy have cheated the most to win their cups.

What the f*** are you talking about?

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Except it's a minority sport. All the best athletes try about 5 other sports (American Football, Basketball, Baseball, Ice Hockey, Athletics) before they give Association Football a crack.

A bit like when I see one of the "X Games" fellas, my immediate thought was, "I bet your were shite at football". So, Americans must look at "soccer" as being full of guys who were shite at everything else.

It is indeed, However if they took it seriously with the attitude to winning and becoming the best they would be very good.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

Has to be Spain.

Never made a WC final despite having produced wonderfully talented footballers over the years.

Italy have cheated the most to win their cups.

Don't you mean Argentina? 1978 and 1986.

 

[Durlston]

Probably Russia/old Soviet Union with the size of the country.

 

[tonymgc]

I'd say Spain too look at the class players they've had over the years. They've only ever made it to the semis once & that was in 1950

 

[7:18]

India gets my vote

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Wales

 

[Chesney Christ]

Germany

 

[dougdeep]

How about Greenland, they never win anything but the place is enormous.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

What the f*** are you talking about?

Mussolini rigged a world cup final(34).

 

[Captain Haddock]

I might be biased as I live here, but I believe Indonesia are far and away the biggest underachievers. The world's fourth biggest population with 230 million people, and unlike India or the USA they absolutely LOVE football. Everyone plays, everyone watches, the world cup gets blanket coverage, there is a Manchester United bar in Jakarta and the premier league, Italian league and German league are all broadcast on local TV. The domestic competition is massively popular. When the main side in Jakarta plays the streets are rammed with the Jakmania, one of the most passionate sets of supporters I've seen anywhere. They get over 60,000 every home game.

Indonesia were the first Asian side to qualify for the World Cup in 1938, and have never qualified since. They've never won the South-east Asian competition, the Tiger Cup. They had never won a single game in the Asian Cup until 2004. Between 2004 and 2007 Pete Withe, the former Aston Villa player, managed the side and lifted them to the high 120's in the fifa rankings, but they've slumped again since.

Of particular note is their repeated failure to beat neighbours and rivals Singapore, who have a population of under 5 million, going down 3-1 in their latest game last year. The U-19 team just lost 7-0 to Japan.

For the size of population and passion for the game its bizarre how bad they are.

Very interesting post, very insightful. Am a 'globally-minded' lover of the game of footy but must admit to being completely ignorant of Indonesia as a football nation. That they are so fanatically so and yet have overwhelmingly failed to register on the international scene is curious indeed.

 

[Captain Haddock]

Regards World Cup under-achievers, I'd discount China, India and USA.

Saying their massive populations should have allowed them to step up is irrelevant. For example India is a cricket mad nation, football is a long-standing but acutely minority sport. It's like saying England have massively under-achieved in baseball for the size of our population.

Men's footy in USA and China's participation in anything other than Olympic disciplines, some racket sports and martial arts are marginally pursued activities too.

 

[Captain Haddock]

My vote goes to Holland (shockingly have never lifted the trophy) and moreso Spain (not even reached a final as far as I'm aware).

England, Mexico and some South American nations could stake a claim to the 'runners-up spots'!