FIFA Rankings

[mikeyjh]

We're up to 4th - PROOF that England are brilliant!

FIFA.com - The FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking - Ranking Table

I have no clue how this happened, the rankings are clearly very odd.

 

[Marshy]

We didnt lose is how.

Pay no attention to them is my advice.

 

[seagullmouse]

Denmark better than Brazil

 

[Gritt23]

Blimey, I can accept it's hard to find a suitable scoring system to rank teams, when you have some in major competition, others just playing friendlies, and presumably over teh next couple of years Brazil will suffer from having no competitive WC Quallies, but COME ON, someone must proof read these before they go out. Brazil, outside the top 10, and us at 4th, and .... oh, I could go on all day.

 

[Southwick_Seagull]

We've only lost once in the last sixteen games.

 

[Guy Crouchback]

There is something profoundly wrong about these rankings. I know we have a mediocre team,
but it's not worse than Panama, Gabon or Libya, as the rankings seem to suggest. Poland in
this ranking is almost 20 positions below Algieria and, as much as I am critical towards our NT's
performances in recent years, this is ridiculous.

Last month we were below Armenia and Estonia! FIFA has to do something about the glaring
discrepancy between their rankings and reality.

 

[Triggaaar]

This proves, beyond doubt, that England fans are never bloody happy. In previous years we've been ranked 10th, with everyone whingeing that we should be higher. Now we complain we should be lower.

 

[drew]

People seem to get too hung up about this. It is just a ranking based on a formula relating to the results a team has and the quality of the team they get those results against. It never will be perfect so just accept it for what it is. Being top doesnt earn you anything, it doesn't win you world cups or continental competitions. It's like any other ranking where you can be top without having won a major tournament eg, tennis, golf etc.

 

[Guy Crouchback]

People seem to get too hung up about this. It is just a ranking based on a formula relating to the results a team has and the quality of the team they get those results against. It never will be perfect so just accept it for what it is. Being top doesnt earn you anything, it doesn't win you world cups or continental competitions. It's like any other ranking where you can be top without having won a major tournament eg, tennis, golf etc.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but these rankings decide the pool you are drawn from in World Cup
and Euro qualifiers and are, therefore, quite important. It makes a big difference if you're drawn
from the second or the fourth pool.

 

[Herne Hill Seagull]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but these rankings decide the pool you are drawn from in World Cup
and Euro qualifiers and are, therefore, quite important. It makes a big difference if you're drawn
from the second or the fourth pool.

Beat me to it - they're in fact profoundly important, so it would be fairer if they bore some resemblance to reality. Teams like Ireland, for example, seem to be being punished, rankings-wise, for reaching the Finals of a major tournament and losing in competitive games to strong teams. Better to fail to get through (just), then beat a series of slightly weaker nations in friendlies. By contrast, we're being rewarded for not losing, despite being thrashed 0-0 by Italy, for example.

 

[Southwick_Seagull]

There is something profoundly wrong about these rankings. I know we have a mediocre team,
but it's not worse than Panama, Gabon or Libya, as the rankings seem to suggest. Poland in
this ranking is almost 20 positions below Algieria and, as much as I am critical towards our NT's
performances in recent years, this is ridiculous.

Last month we were below Armenia and Estonia! FIFA has to do something about the glaring
discrepancy between their rankings and reality.

2 of the teams you mentioned, Algeria and Estonia have had decent times of it of late though. Algeria qualified for WC2010 and Estonia came 2nd in their Euro 2012 qualifying group beating Serbia for example. As someone else has already said it's not a perfect science but you can see why teams are where they are when you look at results. England in general perform very well results wise throughout the year, we don't lose a lot of games, we just lose the most important ones. That's why we have a high ranking but poor performances in tournaments. Even in this tournament just gone we didn't lose however.

I'm not saying I think we're the 4th best team in the world but the system benefits England in terms of ranking.

 

[Guy Crouchback]

2 of the teams you mentioned, Algeria and Estonia have had decent times of it of late though. Algeria qualified for WC2010 and Estonia came 2nd in their Euro 2012 qualifying group beating Serbia for example. As someone else has already said it's not a perfect science but you can see why teams are where they are when you look at results. England in general perform very well results wise throughout the year, we don't lose a lot of games, we just lose the most important ones. That's why we have a high ranking but poor performances in tournaments. Even in this tournament just gone we didn't lose however.

I'm not saying I think we're the 4th best team in the world but the system benefits England in terms of ranking.

I never said the entire ranking doesn't make sense at all, but there IS something wrong with
it, and all you have to do to come to the same conclusion is to look at WC 2014 qualifying
groups: on the one hand you have groups like B (Italy, Denmark, Czech Republic, Bulgaria)
or C (Germany, Sweden, Ireland, Austria) and on the other hand groups like E (Norway,
Slovenia, Switzerland, Albania) or G (Greece, Slovakia, Bosnia, Lithuania).

You are right that some teams managed to get a couple of good results recently, but still
the FIFA rankings don't seem to mirror the real strength of national teams.

Ah, well... I guess we have to wait until 16th October, when the shitty 54th team
in the world will play at home against the amazing 4th team (50 ranking positions
difference!) According to FIFA rankings the score should be something like 0-4, 0-5.
Good luck with that! ;-)

 

[Djmiles]

It says we're 6th in the table I can see?