Brazil will beat Serbia to win Fifa World Cup, says new formula

A professor of economic at the City University in London has developed a formula that predicts who will win this year's Fifa World Cup in South Africa.

According to professor Stefan Szymanski and respected football author, Simon Kuper, the theory is mainly based on economic data.

The formula can correctly predict at least 75% of results based on the differences between the countries' GDP (more resources), population sizes (bigger talent pool), experience at the World Cup, and home advantage, reports stuff.co.nz.

The doubling of the GDP is worth 0.1 goal. Economics aside, however, experience still counts for a lot, with double the experience counting as half a goal. Home advantage is even given greater importance, a whopping two-thirds of a goal, which hands South Africa a decent head start in every game.

According to the theory, Serbia will knock out the US, South Korea and Spain to lose in the final to Brazil.

Interestingly, according to the formula, New Zealand will shock the footballing world and advance from group F alongside Italy, only to be eliminated by the Netherlands.