The World Cup: A Fair
Game?
World Cup 2014 – Maths Themed
Activities
Activity 1:
What are the chances?
An equal opportunity?
PROBABILITY
True or false?
1. Brazil is very unlikely to win the World Cup.
2. England has a 1/32 chance of winning the
World Cup.
3. A team from Africa has the same chance of
winning the World Cup as a team from
Europe.
Does every team have the same chance of
winning?
Page 3
There are 32 countries taking part
in the World Cup.
• Each team has the same number
of players.
• Each team will play by the same
rules.
• What else is the same about the
World Cup teams?
Page 4
PROBABILITY – FRACTIONS
The total teams in the World Cup: 32/32
Page 5
PROBABILITY FRACTIONS
What is the probability of:
1. Any team winning the World Cup?
2. A team from Group A winning the World Cup?
3. A team from Group D winning the World Cup?
4. A country with the colour red used in its flag
winning the World Cup?
Page 6
PROBABILITY – STATEMENTS
FIFA rankings of teams
Page 7
PROBABILITY – STATEMENTS
Less likely
More likely
Certain
Highly likely
Likely
Even chance
Unlikely
Highly unlikely
Impossible
The .............. team is ............................................... to win the
World Cup because ...............................
The .............. team is ............................................... to win the
World Cup than the ............ team because ...............................
A team from group ........ is ............................................... to win
the World Cup than a team from group ..... because ..................
A team from Europe is ............................................... to win the
World Cup than a team from Africa because ..............................
Page 8
Why isn’t it equal?
• Why do some teams have a greater
chance of winning?
• Why do teams from some
continents have a greater chance
of winning?
• Are there any football reasons?
• Are there any non-football reasons?
Page 9
Reasons for teams being more/less likely to
win the World Cup…
How much is this related to things outside of
football itself? Is this fair?
Page 10
Activity 2:
World Cup Country Incomes
Global Inequality
COUNTRY INCOMES
The World Bank classifies each country as either:
a high income country
an upper-middle income country
a lower-middle income country
a low income country
Which do you think each of these countries is?
Brazil
USA
Ivory Coast
England
Page 12
$11340
$7748
$5425
$42597
$1167
$1244
$39746
$1605
$13879
$22442
$2323
$20175
$9749
$46731
$78928
$51749
$67442
$9386
$11573
$5348
$15452
$38920
$4556
$43399
$45960
$33816
$7228
$22590
$28274
$14703
$2722
$14037
Page 13
INEQUALITY
Was there a big difference between the
country incomes?
This is called income inequality.
Inequality means the difference in
resources or opportunities for one group
of people versus another.
Page 14
WORLD CUP COUNTRY INCOMES
1. Make a map of the country incomes for
World Cup countries. Where are most of
the wealthier countries?
2. Make a tally of the country incomes.
How wealthy are the World Cup countries?
3. Compare the incomes of the higher and
lower income countries. How large is
income inequality in the World Cup?
Page 15
WORLD CUP COUNTRY INCOMES
What do you notice? What fraction or
percentage of the World Cup teams are
from different income brackets?
Did you draw a graph to show this
visually?
Are there any low income countries at
all? Why not?
Page 16
COMPARING WEALTH
To help understand this, lets look at the
income inequality between the higher
and lower income countries in the
World Cup.
Use the worksheet to help you make
ratios.
What ratio did you find?
Page 17
COMPARING WEALTH
Can you compare the ratios of the top 3
and bottom 3 World Cup countries average
incomes?
Highest 3 incomes:
av. $66,000
Lowest 3 incomes:
av. $1,300
Ratio
=
66 : 1.3
=
66 / 1.3 = 51
=
51:1
This means the richest 3 countries have
51x more money per person than the
poorest 3 in the World Cup. Is this fair?
Page 18
LOW INCOME COUNTIRES
So why are there no low income
countries in the World Cup at all?
What can richer countries do with this
extra money that gives them an
advantage over them?
Page 19
WHY?
Think about things which extra income
can do to help affect:
•football teams directly (such as training
resources, kit)
•and also indirectly (such as better
healthcare and education for children).
Page 20
Example – African football
There are 54
countries in Africa.
In most of them
people love football.
For example, the
African Cup of
Nations is extremely
popular.
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/governmentza/8463624475//
Page 21
Which African teams?
But although the majority of countries in Africa play football, only the
more wealthy African countries are playing in the World Cup.
Country
Income per
person
Income group
World cup
appearances
Nigeria
2,450
Lower middle
6
Cameroon
2,270
Lower middle
5
Tanzania
609
Low
0
Malawi
268
Low
0
Page 22
Which African teams?
People in Malawi and Tanzania love football.
Fans in the
Kamuzu
stadium in
Malawi
So why do they struggle to participate in the World Cup?
Is it partly due to being a low income country? Is this fair?
Source: ttp://http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kamuzu_Stadium_w%C3%A4hrend_des_Spiels_Malawi__%C3%84gypten,_2008.jpg
Page 23
STATEMENTS AND GENERALISATIONS
Wealthy
countries
are…
Inequality in
the world
cup is..
The more
money a
country has…
European
countries…
Most…
Page 24
IS THIS FAIR?
If a high income country
has more money to
invest in football, what
else would it have more
money to invest in?
Would you prefer to
grow up in a high /
middle / low income
country?
Why?
Is football fair?
If a low income country
has less money to
invest in football, what
else would it have less
money to invest in?
Choose a team to
support through the
tournament.
Will you choose a high /
middle / low income
country?
Why?
Page 25
Why are some teams more likely to win the World Cup?
STATEMENTS – WORLD CUP DISPLAY
Page 26
KS2 WORLD CUP DATA
1. What fraction of the World Cup countries have a high income?
2. What fraction of the World Cup countries have an upper-middle
income?
3. What fraction of the World Cup countries have a lower-middle
income?
4. What fraction of the World Cup countries have a low income?
5. What fraction of countries have a high-income and are in the
Fifa top 16?
6. What fraction of countries have a lower-middle income and are
in the Fifa top 16?
7. What fraction of upper-middle income countries are in the Fifa
top 16?
8. What fraction of low income countries are in the Fifa top 16?
Page 27
KS3 WORLD CUP DATA
1.What fraction of the World Cup countries have a high income?
2.What fraction of the World Cup countries have a low income?
3.What fraction of countries have a high-income and are in the
Fifa top 16?
4.What fraction of countries have a lower-middle income and are
in the Fifa top 16?
5.What percentage of World Cup countries are in Europe?
6.What percentage of World Cup countries are in Africa?
7.What percentage of World Cup countries are in Asia?
8.What percentage of World Cup countries are in North and
Central America?
9.What percentage of World Cup countries are in South America?
*Fifa classifies Australia and Iran as Asian and Russia as European!
Page 28
Activity 3:
Equality Scores
TOP TRUMPS
Page 30
INEQUALITY WITHIN COUNTRIES
Page 31
INEQUALITY WITHIN COUNTRIES
Each of the World Cup countries has been given a score to show
how equal or unequal they are.
0
A score of 0 means that the country is completely equal –
that everyone in that country has the same amount of money.
That would look something like this:
In reality, no country looks like this.
Page 32
INEQUALITY WITHIN COUNTRIES
A score of 1.0 means the country is completely unequal.
This would look something like this:
1
In reality, thankfully, no country looks like this either.
Page 33
FAIRNESS SCORE EXAMPLES
Plot the 4 countries below
0.25
0.30
0.35
0.40
0.45
0.50
0.55
Completely
Unequal
Completely
Equal
USA
Brazil
Cameroon
Japan
0.37
0.46
0.36
0.29
Which is fairest? Are there any surprises?
Where do you think England would score?
Page 34
World Cup Groups Fairness Winners
Task:
Look at the equality scores for the World Cup countries.
You will look at the countries in 1 group.
Order the scores from lowest to highest for your group.
• Which countries are the most equal in your group?
• Which countries are the least equal in your group?
• What is the average in your group?
• How does your average compare to other groups
averages?
(Remember: a score of 0 means the country is perfectly
Equal).
Page 35
Equality Winners
Snowballing Task:
Work with the other people in your class.
• Find out which country is the most and least
equal in each group.
• Record your findings in your table.
• What do you think you will find?
• Which of the World Cup countries do you
think are the most equal?
Page 36
CHALLENGE
Choose a set of data to show fairness scores
on a bar chart.
This could be:
• a continent, such as Europe
• the Fifa Group you started the activity with
• the lowest fairness scores
• the highest fairness scores.
Challenge: Could you represent the mean fairness
scores for each continent?
Page 37
KS2 Extension
Equality Score
Equality Winners
Country
Page 38
KS3 Extension
Equality Winners
Page 39
Further Activity
DOES A COUNTRY GET FAIRER AS
IT GETS RICHER?
Extension
Is there a relationship between wealth of a nation and equality
within a nation?
Would you expect a country to get fairer as it gets richer?
Page 40
THINK IT OVER
Did you
find what
you
expected?
Do you think
that it is right
that some
people have
much more
money than
others? Why?
Which are you most surprised
about, inequality between
counties or inequality within
countries?
What might a more
equal country be
like?
What might a
more equal
country be
like?
Page 41