Even financial experts get a kick out of the beautiful game
Constitutional reform, Hong Kong's housing shortage, the June 4 anniversary? They can all take a back seat this month because what really matters is who is going to win the football World Cup.
Many view Fifa, football's global governing body with 208 member countries - even more than the United Nations - as one big powerful business organisation. It is fair to assume that the World Cup has a significant impact on the global economy as sports sponsorship is big business even during economic downturns.
Sponsorship for this showcase sporting event has risen from US$2 billion in the 1980s to more than US$16 billion in the 1990s. This year, Fifa alone has banked US$3.2 billion in media and marketing revenue. Sponsors have little to lose, given that the month-long tournament attracts billions of viewers worldwide.
Economists have already predicted that South Africa's economy will grow by 2.3 per cent this year.
That is precisely why some of the finest brains at Goldman Sachs have taken time off from Wall Street to take a stab at calculating 'objective probabilities' to see who will take home this year's World Cup.
