Soca Warriors best behaved

This is according to an analysis done by the staff at the British office of Information Builders (IBI) which tracked a string of alternative statistics during Germany 2006, including dives, feigned injuries, referee intimidation, and tantrums — even players who didn’t sing their national anthem.

Dwight Yorke and his TT teammates had the best behaviour record with a Foul Play Index of just 14.

Next were Brazil, Costa Rica and Sweden (15 each) and the US (16).

The Soca Warriors were nailed for just four dives, three tantrums, two fake injuries and three players not singing the anthem.

Angola, Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Spain all scored perfect marks in anthem participation.

According to their findings from watching TV broadcasts of the 32 teams’ matches, Italy lead in dives (32), France in tantrums (28), Paraguay in fake injuries (12), and Serbia and Montenegro in players not singing the anthem (31).

Croatia, France, Italy and Portugal are tied in bullying the referee incidents with five, although Croatia played half the games (three) than the others did.

And who’s the baddest World Cup team of them all?

The software company says Paraguay ranks at the bottom when it comes to misbehaviour at the global football tournament.

Information Builders devised the “IBI Foul Play Index” by awarding points for yellow and red cards, bullying the referee, dives, fake injuries and tantrums. The total is then divided by the number of matches played.

Paraguay leads the tournament with an index of 45, followed by Italy (40) and the Netherlands, Ivory Coast and Portugal (37).

France, Italy’s opponent in tomorrow’s final, are tied with Germany, Switzerland and Togo for 14th at 26. England, tied with South Korea, are 19th at 23.

Information Builders are using the information to promote its software, which organises data.

FIFA have their own Fair Play Index, but declined to provide it when asked yesterday.