Changes in the Human Development Index and Football Success: Evidence from the Men's and Women's FIFA World Cups during 2010-2019

Football success is extremely significant for different countries to use diverse functions of football to provide their interests. Football success is impacted by a wide variety of large-scale socio-economic factors. Human development index is an important factor in this line but the results of earlier studies are inconsistent. 

This research has made use of the final standing of teams in the men's and women's FIFA World Cups, as a measure for football success, to examine its relationship with the HDI. 

The results showed that there is no significant relationship between the HDI and football success in the men's FIFA World Cups but in the women's part, this relationship is positively significant. 

The present study concludes that the HDI has increased the football success in the women's World Cups especially since 2015. In this regard, some considerations should be regarded that have presented in the end. 

Key Message: 

Success in sport is influenced by a wide range of macro socio-economic factors. This study indicates that the HDI significantly influences on the women's football success but doesn’t have any significant relationship with the men's football success, at least during the period that has been considere in this research.