With the football World Cup due to kick off next month in Russia, UBS analysts have switched their forecasting skills from financial markets to the vagaries of the world’s most popular sport.
The World Cup is scheduled to kick off on June 14 in Russia, with 32 countries, including Switzerland, competing for sporting world’s most prestigious trophy. Analysts from UBS’s global wealth management team have put their heads together to figure out the most likely winner of the 2018 competition.
Using the same econometric methods normally applied for assessing investment opportunities, analysts at the largest Swiss bank predicted the current holder of the title will again prevail as World Cup winner: Switzerland’s northerly neighbor, Germany.
Germany, Brazil, Spain
The analysis shows that Germany, at 24 percent, has the best chance of winning the World Cup, UBS said on Thursday (see table). Brazil and Spain are the next most likely winners, with their chances put at 20 percent and 16 percent respectively.
Switzerland an Outsider
And what of Switzerland? If one believed some of the football experts, Switzerland will be sending one of its best-ever teams to compete in Russia. However the chances of upsetting the football heavyweights look slim.
The Alpine country’s footballers are given are given a mere 1.8 percent chance of lifting the trophy, which even so puts them in the top ten of likely winners.
England – No, Still Not
England, the perennial underachievers in a sport invented in the country, again won't come up trumps, at least according to UBS. The analysts gave the country an 8.5 percent chance of beating them all.
