Ghana - Ethical World Champion

Sunday Times(UK) -- THE best team in the World Cup is not England or Germany, nor even Brazil. It is, according to an analysis of the modern game designed for those seeking moral as well as football goals, Ghana, writes Richard Woods.

It may seem hard to believe, but Ghana is ethical champion and the best team to support if you want to feel good about the world. If Ghana doesn?t take your fancy, try Tunisia or Costa Rica.

That at least is the calculation of the World Development Movement (WDM), part of the Make Poverty History campaign. The people at WDM have taken time off from saving the world to rank teams not by footballing skill, but by national ethics and ?global citizenship?.

Eschewing such niceties as the ability to slot the ball into the back of the net, the WDM has analysed data on poverty, military spending, national debt, pollution and other factors to arrive at a ranking of the most ethically supportable teams in a World Cup marked by huge inequalities.

The idea is to put the football frenzy into philosophical perspective. Should you cheer on overpaid strikers from fatcat countries that pump out carbon dioxide? Or impoverished defenders from indebted developing nations fuelled by camel dung?

On this ranking, Ghana, which has a solid defence but dodgy attack, comes out top because the country is sinking under debt and has a health budget barely big enough to cover the medical expenses for Wayne Rooney?s foot. Yet it has still managed to qualify and will find itself playing against the world?s only superpower, America.

Costa Rica comes fourth in the ethical stakes, even though it has relatively low national debt and relatively high average income. But it shoots up the ethics league because it spends nothing on defence (although their 4-2 defeat by Germany on Friday may alter that policy).

Some of the top teams find themselves well down the table. France (dodgy record on corruption) comes in at number 24 ? below Iran at 21. England does even worse, ranking 27, partly because it spews out lots of carbon dioxide and spends more than most on arms. Only Italy, Australia, Saudi Arabia and ? right at the bottom, the USA ? are worse.

By comparison, Paraguay, England?s first victims in the tournament, ranks 7 and England?s old foe Argentina is 8.

Benedict Southworth, director of the WDM, admits the rankings are hardly scientific, but said: ?It?s a fun way to think about a serious issue.?