In 4 days football (a.k.a. soccer) will take over our TV screens once again as the opening game of Euro 2008 kicks off in earnest. But English football fans, like me, have little to cheer for since our national side of under-performers failed to qualify for the finals. As a result, the BBC has resorted to the “so who will you support?” line in its advertisements. But the BBC isn’t the only organisation to use this approach it seems.

Yesterday I received an email in my inbox from the World Development Movement with the catchy heading “love football hate poverty”. Here’s the blurb:

”This time England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland didn’t qualify. So who do you cheer for? What about the coolest flag design (probably Portugal)? Maybe the best holiday destination or food (got to be Italy)? How about supporting the team that gives the most aid to poor countries? Or perhaps cheering on the country that spends the most on healthcare?”

Yes, indeedy. Fantasy football with a conscience. Why hasn’t anyone thought of this before? It has to be a winner!

Actually, the site is rather fun and well worth a look. It allows you to pit the national sides that have qualified for Euro 2008 (plus a notional “UK” side to keep people like me happy) against each other, using a combination of statistics such as the proportion of national income spent on health as a surrogate for footballing talent. I am pleased to report that I correctly guessed which side came out at number 1 using these metrics, but it took me a while to discover which country occupied the number 2 spot. Can you do any better?