knowyourmeme:

World Cup College compiled a forecast on the expected performance of 32 national teams participating in World Cup 2010, based on each country’s internet usage and population density. The purpose of this research study is to see whether there is a “positive correlation between high meme transmission and high quality football.”

A country which facilitates the effective spread of memes might be expected to have a successful national football team. Whilst memes have causal properties and are capable of replicating between human hosts, environmental context can hinder or assist this process. If advanced ideas on fitness, technique, tactics and strategy spread more quickly in one country in comparison with another, then this could confer competitive advantage.

While it remains an interesting hypothesis yet to be proven, these statistics may be put to good use in tracking memetic activities during the month-long sport event.  At Know Your Meme, we’re putting together a special task force to monitor all the online buzz and related discussions in the coming weeks. If you’re a soccer/football fan or planning on watching teh games, feel free to join in at the KYM research forums.