Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski have developed a formula based on population, GDP, experience, and other stuff that predicts the outcome of international football matches with 72% accuracy. Here are their predictions, courtesy of the 10 Shirt, part of the World Soccer Reader network: For the record, my brother writes for WSR on occasion, mostly about La Liga.
Additionally for the record, I should stop short of calling these guys nerds as they do some really cool stuff with economics and sociology, but its catchy and this is pretty nerd. Its also interesting. Brazil over Serbia in the final with Germany and Spain going for third.
