Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/333851
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 22 JUNE 2014 14 Next World champions? Brazil MaltaToday survey JOSEPH MUSCAT SIMON BUSUTTIL ENGLAND ITALY ITA ENG BRA GER "More women likely to support Italy, England and Brazil than Germany" JOSEPH MUSCAT "Labour voters, 46.3%, more likely to support England - up 9.9% since the 2006 finals; while PN voters, 47%, will support Italy, up 9.7% since 2006" While support for Brazil has in- creased slightly since 2010, it de- clined marginally from 2006. Sup- port for Germany also has declined. The only other team to be mentioned by more than 2% of respondents is Spain, which won major football competitions in the past decade but was eliminated from this edition. Other teams which were men- tioned included France, Argentina and the Netherlands. Only two respondents mentioned an African team. The political duopoly Sympathy for Italy or for England also runs parallel with the lines of the political duopoly; with the ma- jority of Nationalist party voters supporting Italy and the majority of Labour party supporters supporting England. Interestingly they do so in equal proportions. While 47% of Nation- alist voters support Italy, 46% of La- bour voters support England. And while 34% of Labour voters support Italy, 33% of PN voters support Eng- land. But while among PN supporters support for England is slightly less than it was in 2006, support for Italy among Labour voters has increased by a remarkable 13 points. This may reflect the massive shift which took place in the 2013 general election which saw a massive chunk of Nationalists drifting to Labour. But it could also reflect wider demo- graphics. Possibly the tendency of Labour- ites to side with England and of Na- tionalists to side with Italy could be a legacy of the language questions. The pique between Anglophiles and Italianates dates back to the early days of Maltese politics, when the ancestors of the modern Nation- alist party yearned for unification with the Italian patria and the fore- runners of the Labour Party striving for closer ties with the United King- dom. The football allegiance seems to have survived later political devel- opments which saw the Labour Par- ty asserting itself as an anti colonial party. Interestingly, support for Brazil is higher among Labour supporters. Social divides Another interesting phenomenon is that university graduates are also more likely to side with Italy than with England. Previous surveys had also shown support for England greater among blue collar workers and support for Italy higher among professionals. But interestingly even this social divide is crumbling. Because while support for Italy has dropped by four points among university educated respondents since 2006, support for Italy among secondary educated respondents has increased by nearly 10 points. This suggests that social mobility may be undermining Italy's domi- nance among university educated respondents. Italy supporters more optimistic The survey undertaken after Italy's 2-1 victory over England but before England's defeat against Uruguay, shows that Italy's supporters were more optimistic on winning the world cup than England's local fans. While 29% of Italy fans think their team will win the world cup, only 7% of England's fans were hopeful that their team will win the tournament. Brazil is the overall favourite to win the tournament despite the team's not so convincing show- ing in the first two matches, which saw the host team struggling to win against Croatia and drawing against Mexico. Germany and Holland, two teams which had a good start, are also seen as favourites to win the tournament. Methodology The survey was held between Mon- day 16 and Wednesday 18 June. 598 respondents were contacted. 450 respondents accepted to be inter- viewed. The results of the survey were weighed according to the age and sex composition of the Maltese popula- tion. The survey has a margin of er- ror of +/-4.6 percentage points. 38 39.8 37.5 38.1 6.5 7 4.6 2.9