Lizzy McNeill
speaker
375 appearances
10 recordings
1 series
first heard Dec 2018
last heard 18 Jul
Lizzy McNeill’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 7 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 5.
Appearances
Hello and thanks for downloading the More or Less podcast.
We're the programme that looks at the numbers in the news, life and in that sport that definitely starts with the word foot.
And I'm Lizzie McNeill.
Now, unless you've been blissfully far away from any screens, radios, pubs, flags or indeed people, you'll have noticed that there's been a bit more football around than usual.
Yes, after five weeks and over 100 matches, we've reached the dramatic final of the 2026 World Cup.
Doubtless, both teams have worked extremely hard to reach this point.
But loyal listener Mike Ghent got in touch to ask whether there might be another factor at play here.
And no, we don't mean interfering state leaders.
He wanted to know about luck.
So, how important is luck in winning the World Cup?
Does the better team always win, or could a worse team steal victory from the jaws of defeat?
First of all, we need to define what we mean by luck.
So we armed ourselves with our trusty four-leaf clovers, rabbit's feet and other totemic objects and contacted Ian Graham, former head of research at Liverpool Football Club.
It happens that football is one of the least predictable ball sports there is.
If this is true, and it really is based on luck, then you'd expect to see the underdog win in football more so than in other sports.
So, do you?
Luckily for us, mathematician Luis Nunez-Vincente from Lehigh University ran a study to test just that.
And what were the results?
So, how does that all play out in a tournament like the World Cup?
Is it Ibuki's dream of luck above all else?
Showing 1–20 of 375 · page 1 of 19
Next →