Presenter: Gideon Parry
Authors: Gideon Parry
Faculty Advisor: Joshua Price
Institution: Southern Utah University
I, along with many others have wondered what it is that makes national soccer teams successful. It is clear that population plays a part in that, as small nations tend not to be as successful, but there is clearly a lot more to it than that since China and India do not have successful teams. How big of a factor is population, and what are some of the other factors? Some research has looked at GDP and experience of the national federation as factors, and it would certainly be interesting to include that type of variable as well. Another potentially important factor may be how much a nation values soccer compared to other sports. A common reason that gets brought up for the United States men’s national team being less successful than it seems like it “should be”, is that the teams they play represent nations where soccer is the national sport, so that overcomes a lot of their disadvantages in resources. Surveying has been done to find which nations like soccer the most, so the goal of this research is to combine that with the research done about the effects of resources national federations have and how successful their national teams are.