The waiting is nearly over and rather unsurprisingly football has turned into a bit of a theme among market participants, with an avalanche of references and analysis taking centre stage.

The people at Interactive Investor and WDX yesterday launched an elaborate trading game based on the results of matches. Combining the recent focus on sovereign balance sheets with prowess on the football field, they have awarded a handicap to each country based on its FIFA ranking and GDP. For rather obvious reasons, there is no consideration taken of national debt in the GDP calculation - although that might throw up some interesting results.