Who's the baddest World Cup team of them all? A software company says Paraguay ranks at the bottom when it comes to misbehaviour at the global soccer tournament.
Staff at the British office of Information Builders (IBI) tracked a string of alternative statistics during Germany 2006, including dives, feigned injuries, referee intimidation and tantrums — even players who didn't sing their national anthem.
According to their findings from watching TV broadcasts of the games, Italy leads in dives (32), France in tantrums (28), Paraguay in fake injuries (12), and Serbia and Montenegro in players not singing the anthem (31).
Croatia, France, Italy and Portugal are tied in bullying the referee incidents with five, although Croatia played half the games (three) than the others did.
To create an even playing field to compare teams, Information Builders devised the "IBI Foul Play Index," which awards points for yellow and red cards, bullying the referee, dives, fake injuries and tantrums. The total is then divided by the number of games played.
Paraguay leads the tournament with a Foul Play Index of 45, followed by Italy (40) and the Netherlands, Ivory Coast and Portugal (37).
France, Italy's opponent in Sunday's final, is tied with Germany, Switzerland and Togo for 14th at 26. England, tied with South Korea, is 19th at 23.
Trinidad and Tobago were the goodie two-shoes of the tournament, according to Information Builders with a Foul Play Index of just 14. Next were Brazil, Costa Rica and Sweden (all 15) and the U.S. (16).
T&T were nailed for just four dives, three tantrums, two fake injuries and three players not singing the anthem.
Angola, Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Spain all scored perfect marks in anthem singing.
Information Builders is using the information to promote its software, which organizes data.
