World Cup Diary: New Trade Prospects

Great first day of knockout stage soccer. Both Uruguay vs. South Korea and the USA vs. Ghana have been fantastic games. For the United States, well, Donovan sums it up: “Soccer is a cruel game, sometimes!”

It’s interesting to see the round of 16 lineup: six Latin American teams (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, and Mexico), six European teams (Germany, Netherlands, Slovakia, Spain, Portugal, and England), two from Asia (Japan and South Korea), one from Africa (Ghana) and the USA.

In the round of 32, there were seven more from Europe (France, Italy, Slovenia, Serbia, Greece, Switzerland, Denmark), one more from Latin America (Honduras), five more from Africa (Algeria, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, South Africa), one from Asia (North Korea), Australia and New Zealand.

Notably absent are the two emerging superpowers from Asia: India and China. China is ranked 84th in soccer’s world standings, just ahead of African nation Mozambique. China wins tons of medals in the Olympics and dominates many sports disciplines, including table tennis, gymnastics, swimming, and diving. Soccer is not played at the grassroots level in China. However, the game is popular as a spectator sport, and millions of fans are watching the 2010 FIFA world cup from China.

India is another story. Soccer is played at the grassroots level, and the game is immensely popular as a spectator sport, earning huge television advertising money. But India’s performance in the world arena in almost all sports other than cricket is pathetic. In soccer, it is nonexistent.

Based on the above, it appears that China and India need to work on getting world-class soccer teams going, while Europe and Latin America need to beef up their economies.

There may be some interesting trade possibilities: Latin America could exchange groups of entrepreneurs and engineers from the United States, China, and India for groups of soccer players. Maybe Europe and Africa as well could export some soccer talent and import some entrepreneurs and engineers.

What do you think? I am only half kidding!

This segment is a part in the series : World Cup Diary