Two lottery winners who purchased football clubs

These are the lucky lottery winners who bought their own football clubs using at least part of their winnings.

Livingston – John McGuinness

John McGuinness' time as a football investor was not a happy one. In 1996, the former nurse was the biggest winner of the lottery. He won more than £10million. McGuinness was able to leave his one-bedroom home and pay a lump sum of money to his ex-wife to arrange for a lavish wedding. After considering Hamilton and Motherwell, the Celtic fan decided to invest a million dollars in Livingston F.C. From West Lothian.

The club was promoted to the Scottish Premier League in its first season. They also played high-profile friendly matches against internationally recognized teams such as Newcastle United and Manchester United. John's downfall was due to misplaced trust, naivety, and other factors. He signed a contract relating to club loans in 2001, not realizing that he would be held responsible for the loans if the club defaulted. McGuinness became liable for the debt and used all of his lottery winnings.

Partick Thistle - Colin Weir

Colin Weir and his then-wife Christine won a massive £161 million from the lottery in 2011. With so much money to spend, the couple was able to fulfil many personal dreams as well as share their good fortune with others. Luckily for Glasgow-based Partick Thistle F.C., some of that wealth would be coming their way to give the cash-strapped club a much-needed boost. Competing for fans in Glasgow with Scottish giants Rangers and Celtic has been a thankless task, so a lottery boost was most welcome.

Fortunately for the Glasgow minnows, Colin and Christine (since divorced) were long-standing fans of ‘Thistle’. Rather than splash a wad of cash on the latest hotly-touted striker or midfielder, Colin hoped to have a longer-term impact on the club. With that in mind, the lottery winner donated £750,000 to create a youth academy for Partick Thistle in 2013, allowing the club to develop talent from within for the first time. Further donations have followed, totalling more than £2 million to date, which has allowed the academy to make large strides towards self-sufficiency. As a mark of its appreciation, Partick Thistle has made Colin Weir the first official patron of the club and renamed the main stand in his honour.

Let's now talk about the highest-scoring odds for the World Cup.

Group A - Qatar, Ecuador, Senegal, Netherlands - 6/1

The tournament will be opened by Qatar, the host nation. It will begin as per tradition with a match against Ecuador. The next day Senegal meets the Netherlands.

The Netherlands is the 8/15 best value to win this group. If all games go according to plan, they should be able to pick up at least two wins.

This market is likely to have two strong and two weaker sides. As a result, we could be able to rack up some huge scores.

Unless the Netherlands go goal crazy (something that would be perplexing for Man United fans considering Louis van Gaal is their manager), Group A doesn’t seem like a good choice to be the group with the most goals.

Group B - England, Iran, USA, Wales - 11/2

England will begin their quest to win their first World Cup since 1966 by playing against Iran in the second match of this tournament.

This group is 1/2 for the Three Lions, while the Iranians are 20/1. Therefore, this opening fixture seems to be the most suitable for a pummelling. However, with Gareth Southgate's penchant for caution, it wouldn’t surprise that England would grind their way through the group instead of blowing away teams.

Group C - Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland – 5/1

The group that includes Lionel Messi cannot be overlooked in terms of being the most successful at any World Cup. Group C also features Robert Lewandowski, a Polish superstar.

These two icons of global goal-scoring make it worth taking a bet on Group C to be the top scorers at Qatar 2022, regardless of their opponents. However, the 5/1 seems even more appealing due to the possibility of Saudi Arabia being the group whipping boys.

At 33/1, the Saudis have the longest odds of winning any group. However, their defenders may be shocked to see the talent of Argentina's team, which will be led by Messi at his (probable last) World Cup.