England will finally win the World Cup after 44 years of pain if City boffins are to be believed.

European champions Spain will be runners-up with the Netherlands winning the third place play-off, according to J.P. Morgan quantitative analysts who issued their findings on Tuesday ahead of the World Cup (June 11-July 11) kick-off.

They predict world number one team Brazil will fall short in South Africa because of a tougher route through to the final than their main rivals.

The quantitative analysts at J.P.Morgan used information such as FIFA ranking, historical results and its J.P.Morgan Team Strength Indicator to come up with a mathematical model to predict match results, they explained.

However, they warned "this report should be taken with a pinch of salt" and that it is an exercise to "light-heartedly explain quantitative techniques and demystify the typical quant framework."

The analysts usually use these kind of mathematical models to help predict stock market winners with millions of dollars hanging on their calculations.

England last won football's biggest prize in 1966 when the Beatles topped the charts with Yellow Submarine and Harold Wilson was Prime Minister.

In the latest official FIFA rankings, England were in eighth position and Spain were second.

(Read by Lee Hannon. Lee Hannon is a journalist at the China Daily Web site.)

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(Agencies)