“Morocco were 200-1 to win the World Cup at the start of the tournament,” writes Craig Hinton. “To date, which eventual winner had the highest odds at the start of the tournament? And how often do the pre-tournament favourites win.”
We’ve only been able to find UK odds for every World Cup since 1966, so that’s our starting point for the purposes of this question. In that period, the most unlikely winners were both Italian. Marcello Lippi’s 2006 side were 8-1 before the tournament, behind the favourites, Brazil, and England among others. Italy went all the way to the final where they beat France – who, at 12-1, were an even longer shot. And no, we couldn’t find the odds on Zinedine Zidane ending his career by ramming his forehead into Marco Materazzi’s chest.
