Money helps buy success, as our analysis has shown. But the relationship between the two is loose. Germany is the highest-ranked country on FIFA analysis of past performance, with Brazil second, yet they have only the fourth and third most valuable squads in the 2018 tournament. The difference between the ranking teams by the cost of their squad and their FIFA ranking could be considered as a measure of “value for money”. On this basis, Peru represents the best value for money. Fielding a squad costing only €37 million (this is bettered by 86 individual players in the tournament) it ranks 30th of 32 teams on cost. ... (full story)