The Most & Least Fairest Playing Teams in the World Cup

After England finished runner-up at the UEFA European Championship’s in 2020, when they lost the final to Italy on penalties, the love for the England national football team keeps on growing.

To celebrate the World’s most watched sporting event back on our screens, we have analysed the number of red cards received compared to the number of games played to reveal the most booked and cleanest playing national football teams around.

In addition, we have analysed how many games of football each country has played since the first World Cup began to uncover which teams are most likely to place in the top three.

Top 20 Most Booked National Football Squads, Uncovered

Despite Brazil receiving the most red cards in the history of the World Cup, they are not one of the most booked team, and don’t even make the top 20! When we look at how many red cards per matches played, Cameroon is the most booked with 0.348 red cards per matches played.

However, 30% of the teams didn’t qualify for the FIFA World Cup this 2022. So, which of the teams playing this year are the most booked?

Cameroon is The Most Likely Team To Be Booked in the FIFA World Cup

Top of the list of national football teams to steer clear of is Cameroon. They've received eight red cards in 23 matches since the beginning of the World Cup in 1930.

This works out at 0.348 red cards every game, putting them top of the list of most booked national football teams. The team are playing Switzerland, Serbia & Brazil at the initial Group stage of the tournament, three countries who did not make this list.

Canada is The Second Most Likely Team To Be Booked in the FIFA World Cup

Canada is the second team to look out for due to their number of red cards against games played. They’ve only ever played in one World Cup in 1986, and received a red card in the three games they played in before placing last place.

Australia has qualified for the FIFA World Cup finals on six occasions, but has received four red cards in the 17 football matches they have played, placing them as the 3rd most booked national team.

The Fairest Playing Teams To Have Ever Entered The World Cup

There are 21 teams since the World cup started in 1930, that have never received a red card (piror to the 2022 World cup). These are as follows:

Bosnia and Herzegovina
Cuba
DR Congo
Egypt
El Salvador
Haiti
Iceland
Indonesia
Iran
Israel
Japan
Kuwait
Morocco
New Zealand
North Korea
Norway
Panama
Qatar
Republic of Ireland
Slovakia
Wales

The Fairest Teams at the 2022 Tournament

Now we know who is the fairest teams to have ever entered the World Cup, but who out of this years competing teams is the fairest? Well, it’s a joint tie between Iran, Japan, Morocco, Qatar, and Wales with all respective teams receiving zero red cards.

However, out of the five teams, it’s Japan who has played the most matches at 21, and not received one red card, which could make the team the cleanest. It should also be noted that these are the national teams with 0 red cards as of November 22nd 2022 when the data was collected.

Spain is the Second Most Fairest Playing Team at the 2022 World Cup

Out of all 63 matches the Spain team have played in the history of the World Cup, they have only been red carded once. The offending player to be carded was Miguel Àngel Nadal, at the 1994 World Cup, in a match against South Korea. Unlucky for Spain, Nadal had to sit out of two games for his foul play.

The Teams Most Likely to Place in the Top Three

The FIFA World Cup was first held in 1930 and, since then, a tournament has been held every fourth year. 32 nations make it to the World Cup, leaving plenty of other countries who didn’t qualify wondering who to support.

tombola bingo, has analysed the number of times every country who has ever qualified for the world cup make it to the top 3 positions in the tournament. They then divided this by the number of tournaments to uncover the best performing team over the years.

Germany is 60% Most Likely to Enter in the Top Three Places

According to the data, Germany is the number one team glory hunters should support. A ‘glory hunter’ is a term often used to describe footie fans that only support certain clubs because of their success. Germany has either won or placed second or third in 60% of the 20 World Cup tournaments they have played in.

Brazil is the Second Best, Landing in the Top Three 41% of the Time

Despite Brazil winning the most world cups with five to their name, the number of times they’ve landed in the top three makes them the second-best performing overall.

However, if you are rooting for Brazil this year, the likelihood of them placing in 1st, 2nd or 3rd is high. According to the research, Brazil have finished in the top three positions of the tournament 41% of the 22 times they have entered.

Enjoyed reading this? Perhaps you would like to know which England players are the most loved?

Methodology:

All figures are correct as of November 22nd 2022. tombola bingo analysed Wikipedia to uncover the list of national football teams that have qualified for the FIFA World Cup since 1930, how many times each team has gotten a red card, as well as which made it to 1st, 2nd or 3rd place for each tournament entered.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_team_appearances_in_the_FIFA_World_Cup

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_team_appearances_in_the_FIFA_World_Cup#Overall_tea