
“One thing is for sure, a World Cup without me is nothing to watch,” declared Zlatan Ibrahimovic in November 2013, after Sweden failed to make it to Brazil.
It was a typical Zlatan exaggeration, but one of the finest and most marketable players on the planet had missed out on the 2014 World Cup, and the tournament could only be poorer for it. Logically, fewer superstars involved must surely mean fewer viewers, and less money generated.