Group F, with Germany and Mexico, has most followers on social networks

Group F, comprising Germany, Mexico, Sweden and South Korea, has a total of 24,150,755 followers on the social networks, making it the qualifying group with the most virtual fans in the run-up to the 2018 World Cup football tournament in Russia.

According to a study released on Monday on www.fansranking.com the 2WaySports index, which totals in real time the number of followers on the official Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts of the national teams, Mexico has 14,812,206 virtual fans, Germany 8,748,891, Sweden 304,041 and South Korea 285,617, reports Efe news agency.

The report adds that Group E is in second place with 16,387,288 fans, of which 15,160,199 follow Brazil, 786,467 Costa Rica, 248,019 Switzerland and 192,603 Serbia.

The contest for third place between now and the World Cup competition is very tight, however, and the teams of Group C (11,525,370 followers), Group G (10,774,837), Group B (10,141,277) and Group H (9,148,401) could all increase the number of their virtual fans, the US firm said in a statement.

Meanwhile, after qualifying for the World Cup, the Peruvian national team was the one acquiring the greatest number of new virtual fans (483,538), followed by Argentina (333,745), France (191,825), Brazil (186,849) and Colombia (167,378).

With Peru and Egypt both qualifying for the World Cup after 36 and 28 years, respectively, there has been an "impressive" positive impact on 2WaySports index in both cases, the company added.

Egypt had 158,121 followers before qualifying for next year's World Cup and 286,049 afterwards, thus gaining 127,928 virtual fans.

Last Friday, the lottery for the World Cup groups was held at the Kremlin.

The World Cup will be played between June 14 and July 15, 2018.

--IANS

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