Imagine not India and Kerala, but Malappuram district qualifying for a World Cup; What a beautiful unfulfilled dream! But a country that is Malappuram’s ‘brother’ in terms of population is playing the World Cup again this time: Luka Modric’s Croatia! Like Malappuram, the population of Croatia, which was second in the last World Cup and third in the 1998 World Cup, is around 42 lakh. While there is no correlation between population and football excellence, here are some interesting demographics from the World Cup:
Kerala World Cup Countries and Districts
Half of the countries competing in the Qatar World Cup (16) are below Kerala (3.46 crore) in terms of population. Qatar is the smallest host country with a population of only 3 million.
Summary in English: FiFA World Cup, Population list of countries
