Football myths

There is no getting away from it…the country has gone World Cup mad. And with support reaching fever pitch, the armchair managers among you will be full of advice for Sven and the boys.

But beware - a group of psychologists have dispelled many of the ‘facts’ that surround the beautiful game. So, before shouts for the managers head start ringing out, we thought you might like to get the inside information on some footy myths.

The group found that:

• There is no evidence players who scored in a previous match are any more likely to score in their next match. Bad luck Beck’s – there will be no resting on your laurels!
• A goal scored just before half time has no greater impact on the game than a goal scored earlier in the first half.
• Teams that have just scored are not more vulnerable to conceding a goal than at other times.
• Teams wearing red shirts do not win more often than teams dressed in blue.
• Football experts’ predictions of World Cups are not more accurate than those generated by simple rules using world rankings or odds. In general, they are able to predict roughly 50% of the matches in World Cups correctly.
• They did however find that odds-setters are extremely good at assessing the probabilities of outcomes, suggesting that if you are the betting type, you shouldn’t try and get one over on the bookmakers.

So there you have it. Don’t panic if we concede one in the 44th minute, don’t try and beat the odds, and if you do have a flutter- what ever you do, don’t listen to Lineker’s predictions!