Survey says Brazil is fan favourite By QMI Agency

Nearly half of Canadians will be cheering for Brazil when the World Cup kicks off Friday, a new survey says.

More than 40% of fans surveyed worldwide said they'll be rooting for Kaka, Julio Cesar and the Brazilians, while 47% of Canadians -- who don't have a home team to cheer for in the soccer tournament -- said they hope the green and yellow win.

Brazil also came in second behind the home team among a wide majority of nations that have teams in the tournament, including France (with 37% of people saying they will support Brazil), Germany (22%), Italy (36%), South Africa (53%), Spain (41%), the U.K. (29%), and the U.S. (33%).

The online survey was conducted by media and marketing services agency Mindshare and is a representative sample of 29,000 Internet users.

Argentina was second with fans, receiving 30% of the votes. Seven nations were tied for dead last with just 1% of respondents claiming support for Slovakia, Algeria, Slovenia, Honduras, Serbia, South Korea, and North Korea.

Just four countries that did not have a team in the tournament were part of the survey: Canada, India, Singapore and Poland.

The FIFA World Cup begins Friday in South Africa.