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maltatoday,SUNDAY, 22 JUNE 2014News

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A MaltaToday survey conductedover the past week shows that Italyhas overtaken England, by a smallmargin, as Maltas favourite footballteam among the nations battling itout in the World Cup.

Previous surveys conducted by Mal-taToday in 2006 and 2010 showedEngland slightly ahead although Italywas already more popular among

younger respondents and universityeducated respondents.

In fact in this survey although sup-port for England has risen among 18to 34 year-olds, it declined amongthe 35 to 55-year-old age bracket.

The survey follows similar patterns

established in previous surveys, con-firming the political divide betweenpro English Labour and pro ItalianPN.

But over the past eight years sup-

among those aged 18 to34 - the generation whichgrew up with cable and sat-ellite TV and the commer-cialisation of club footballdominated by brand nameslike Manchester United.

In fact, the latest surveyshowed that the latter are themost popular club in Malta.

While in 2010 in the 18-34age bracket, 44% supported Italywhile 32% supported England,now 44% back Italy while 39%back England. Back in 2006, 46%supported Italy, and only 24% sup-ported England.

On the other hand, among thoseaged over 55, 39% side with Eng-land while only 31% side with Italy.This suggests an increase in sup-port for Italy among the oldest

MaltaToday survey shows Italy are more popular among newgenerations and anybody aged under 55 years, the university-educated, and PN voters, while England remains more popularamong Labour voters and over-55 year olds

mtsurvey

Italy overtakes Englandas most supported

team in MaltaFootball clubs most supported in Malta

%

Manchester United 20.2

Juventus 12.8

Liverpool 9.2

Milan 6.1

Inter 5.6

Arsenal 1.8

Bayern Munich 1.1

Chelsea 0.9

Tottenham 0.7

Roma 0.7

Others 9.4None 31.5

Favourite foreign national team among

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Next World champions? Brazil35.1 % say

Brazil will winthe 2014 FIFA

World Cup27.4% of Italy fans, and45.5% of England fans

share this conviction

PN voters % change 2006 PL voters % change 2006

Italy 47 9.7 33.7 13.2

England 33.1 -1.5 46.3 9.9

Brazil 4.3 3 7.1 -5.4

Germany 6 3.3 3.2 -2.5

MaltaToday surveyMaltaToday survey

JOSEPH MUSCAT SIMON BUSUTTIL

ENGLAND ITALY

ITA

ENG

BRA

GER

More womenlikely to supportItaly, Englandand Brazil thanGermany

Support by educational qualification (%)

Uni Post-sec Sec Primary

Italy 34.6 36.1 38.7 31.4

England 31.1 38.1 37.7 38.1

Brazil 6.7 4.1 6.9 8.2

Germany 6.7 2.7 2.9 3.4

Support by age (%)

18-34 35-54 55+

Italy 43.8 41.4 30.7

England 38.6 33.5 39

Brazil 3.9 9.7 8.4

Germany 1.9 3.6 0.5

Support by educational qualification (%)

2006 2010 2014

Italy 28.4 31.1 38.5

England 32.1 34.1 37.7

Brazil 9.2 5.8 6.7

Germany 4.8 4.1 3.5

Labour voters,46.3%, morelikely to supportEngland - up 9.9%since the 2006finals; while PNvoters, 47%, willsupport Italy, up9.7% since 2006

Who willwin theBrazil 2014World Cup?

Italy 11.5%

Germany 11.2%

Netherlands 9.7%

Argentina 5.6%

England 2.5%

Other 6.4%

Dont know 18%

Italy fans 29.2% England fans 1.2%

Italy fans 10.8% England fans 13.2%

Italy fans 9.6% England fans 12%

Italy fans 8.3% England fans 4.8%

Italy fans 0% England fans 6.6%

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 isSpain, which won major footballcompetitions in the past decade butwas eliminated from this edition.

Other teams which were men-tioned included France, Argentinaand the Netherlands.

Only two respondents mentionedan African team.

The political duopolySympathy for Italy or for England

also runs parallel with the lines ofthe political duopoly; with the ma-jority of Nationalist party voterssupporting Italy and the majority ofLabour party supporters supportingEngland.

Interestingly they do so in equalproportions. While 47% of Nation-alist voters support Italy, 46% of La-bour voters support England. Andwhile 34% of Labour voters supportItaly, 33% of PN voters support Eng-land.

But while among PN supporterssupport for England is slightly lessthan it was in 2006, support for Italyamong Labour voters has increased

by a remarkable 13 points.This may reflect the massive shift

which took place in the 2013 generalelection which saw a massive chunkof 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 bea legacy of the language questions.

The pique between Anglophilesand Italianates dates back to theearly days of Maltese politics, when

the ancestors of the modern Nation-alist party yearned for unificationwith the Italian patria and the fore-runners of the Labour Party strivingfor 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 colonialparty.

Interestingly, support for Brazil ishigher among Labour supporters.

Social dividesAnother interesting phenomenon

is that university graduates are alsomore likely to side with Italy thanwith England.

Previous surveys had also shown

support for England greater amongblue collar workers and support forItaly higher among professionals.

But interestingly even this socialdivide is crumbling.

Because while support for Italyhas dropped by four points amonguniversity educated respondentssince 2006, support for Italy amongsecondary educated respondentshas increased by nearly 10 points.This suggests that social mobilitymay be undermining Italys domi-nance among university educatedrespondents.

Italy supporters more optimisticThe survey undertaken after Italys

2-1 victory over England but beforeEnglands defeat against Uruguay,shows that Italys supporters weremore optimistic on winning theworld cup than Englands local fans.While 29% of Italy fans think theirteam will win the world cup, only 7%of Englands fans were hopeful thattheir team will win the tournament.

Brazil is the overall favourite towin the tournament despite theteams not so convincing show-ing in the first two matches, whichsaw the host team struggling to winagainst Croatia and drawing againstMexico. Germany and Holland, two

teams which had a good start, arealso seen as favourites to win thetournament.

MethodologyThe survey was held between Mon-day 16 and Wednesday 18 June. 598respondents were contacted. 450respondents accepted to be inter-viewed. The results of the survey wereweighed according to the age and sexcomposition of the Maltese popula-tion. The survey has a margin of er-ror of +/-4.6 percentage points.

Support of Big Four in last finals (%)

Neymar - big hopesfor Brazil

Andrea Pirlo -can Italy improveits game?

ThomasMller takesthe Germanpowerhouseforward

Arjen van Robben - the Dutch arehungry for World Cup victory

Lionel Messi - Argentinas

great white hope

...and itsgood nightfor Englandand WayneRooney

38 39.837.5 38.1

6.5 74.6 2.9