New book 'Soccernomics' challenges football myths

I highly doubt that Japan is a rising star on the international stage. When they get more players in Europe regularly featuring for the top sides then come back and say that.

What exactly are they basing that on?

it's kind of sad that an event as big as the world cup has to be based on how much profit there will be. how about basing it on sportsmanship & who's the best team & so on.the writer also states that the "only" thing that it can boost is the nations morale & image. well, seems as if africa could you a shot of morale & if their image is improved, they will become more trustworthy & more companies could possibly decide to do business there. hence the profit everyone seems to be so worried about.

Read the snippets listed above, synopsis, "this book needs kicking into touch!"

Japan is going nowhere fast, though i guess they cant do any worse than the last world cup. There is a reason these kind of events like world cup and olympics havent been held in countries like brazil and S africa before and it is because they are a massive waste of money, that only some countries are willing to waste.