Fifa world cup: Why costa rica can but not singapore

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FIFA WORLD CUP: WHY COSTA RICA CAN BUT NOT SINGAPORE



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Post date:
4 Jul 2014 - 4:08pm












Many football fans in Singapore may have wondered why Costa Rica, despite having a population of 4.8 million, could manage to get into the quarterfinals of the Football World Cup whereas Singapore had failed to qualify for the competition. In this post, I shall try to figure out the reasons why Costa Rica did it and Singapore could not.

Reason 1: Latin Americans tend to play better football/soccer than Asians.
(This is not a racist remark. This is a fact. Look at Uruguay – a small country with a population size identical to SG’s. They have been World Champions twice – 1930 and 1950 and they finished 4th in the 2010 World Cup.)

Reason 2: Costa Rica is ranked No 1 in the Happy Planet Index rankings. Meaning: The country is the world’s greenest and happiest nation. Their people, citizens generally lead very happy, fullfilling and healthy lives. Costa Rica had produced a world-class swimmer in Claudia Poll.

Reason 3: Costa Rica is unique in Latin America as since 1947, the country has not had any military coups nor is ruled by any dictator. The country has a very long and proud democratic tradition and has enjoyed a long period of political stability. Unlike neighbouring Central American countries El Salvador and Honduras which had a Football War in 1969, Costa Rica is free from wars and conflicts.

Reason 4: Costa Rica is the wealthiest Central American country and has a huge middle class. The country is known to have the best welfare system outside of Northern Europe. The living standard in the country is pretty high compared to many of her Latin American neighbours.
BTW, Costa Rica is also the first Central American team to have made it into the last 8 of the Football World Cup and the only one to have qualified for the World Cup Finals 4 times (1990, 2002, 2006 and 2014).

Reason 5: Costa Rica is in a smaller Football Confederation (CONACAF) where only the strongest teams are the US and Mexico.

Reason 6: Singapore is in a much bigger Football Confederation (Asia) which has over 40 members. Standing in the way of Singapore qualifying for their first ever World Cup are teams such as Japan, North and South Koreas, Iran, Australia, China, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States. Also not forgetting teams from the South East Asian region – Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam.
And just 4 World Cup finals places given for Asia.

Reason 7: Costa Rica now have their best players playing for clubs in Europe. Even though many of them are playing for lesser known clubs in Northern Europe. But the best known players are forwards Bryan Ruiz who plays for Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven and Joel Campbell who plays for Greek champions Olympiakos.

Reason 8: Despite Singapore importing many foreign-born footballers into its national side over the past 10 years,the best achievement they had in international competition is to be Champion of the South East Asia region in 2005, 2007 and 2012. Proving that the foreign players are good but not good enough when it comes to competing against teams from outside the region.

Reason 9: Countries like Costa Rica and Uruguay have an excellent youth scouting and development systems. Potential footballing talents could be easily identified and be nurtured quickly. Countries like Uruguay tend to perform well at the World Youth Championships. Players like Luis Suarez would start their professional careers as early as the age of 19 with a top domestic club side like Nacional or Penarol.

Reason 10: Most Singaporeans love only to watch football and don’t really play football as a profession.

Liew Chin Fu

Hello! It could be worse if not for my Familee and our FT pets! *hee*hee*

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