The Changing World of Football

The footballing world has become so big and with the quality improving all of the time across the continents, it’s becoming even harder to predict the winners of games. The void has certainly closed at domestic and international level, and the underdogs aren’t so apparent anymore. We only have to look at the last World Cup and the result of Argentina vs Saudi Arabia group game.

30 years ago or even 10 years ago, nobody would of ever seen that result coming and I very much doubt it would of happened. I remember a quote from the late great Pele saying in 1977 that before 2000 an African nation would win the World Cup.

He didn’t quite get this right but he was close.

Since this prediction the African game as rocketed with players such as Roger Milla, Didier Drogba, El Hadji Diouf, Samuel E’to, Diop, Mane and of course Mo Salah. We only have to look at Morocco in the last World Cup making it to the semi-finals only to lose 2-0 to France. They then lost the 3rd place playoff against Croatia 2-1 so finished 4th in the tournament and took their rightful place as highest ever African placed team at a World Cup.

The Creation of the Premier League

Billions and billions of pounds has been put into the Premier League including players' wages, transfer fees and TV rights means the quality of players has improved exponentially in relation to this. This investment and the increasing amount of foreign players in the Premier League means the money has been able to be passed on to other countries as well and improved the teams within them.

Training facilities and the improvement in science and dietary studies has also had a massive impact in the way the game is viewed and the style of play and types of player we now see. Who would have thought a young Argentine lad who only grew to just 5ft 7inch or a Portuguese boy who didn’t complete his education and had a heart operation at just 15 would become arguably the best two players the world has seen at the same time?

Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo’s records are beyond anything that has been seen. Ronaldo with 970 club appearances and 715 goals, 146 competitive internationals and 102 goals 5 Ballon d’ors and a European Champions medal. Lionel Messi 885 club appearances 715 goals, 121 competitive internationals and 54 goals and 7 Ballon d’ors to go with his World Cup winners medal.

We only need to look at the recent investments into Manchester City, Newcastle and Manchester United from the Saudi Arabian billionaires to see that there is money to be made if it is invested wisely. Manchester City with the treble win in 2022/23, isn’t just a coincidence that with the money invested has had a massive impact on this achievement.They didn’t have the highest spending on players by a long way, but the players they bought in and with the great Pep Guardiola in charge, the money was spent wisely and spent on developing a squad not just signing big-name players.

So what does this all mean for the matched betting community? It will hopefully mean that we are able to get closer matches as the games will continue to be more competitive domestically and on an international level.

This is because “outsiders” have more chance of going two goals ahead and being pegged back for the 2up early payout offer run by Bet365 and Paddy, so we can place our bets on these for a higher turnover of profits. It will mean there are more boosts available on players for shots on target and first goal scorers, and hopefully mean that we will get more Double delight or Hattrick Heaven offers from Betfred.