FIFA Rankings... Hilarious!

[Ordar]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19177783

England up to third in Fifa world rankings

England have risen to their best ever position in the Fifa world rankings.

Roy Hodgson's side have moved to third above Uruguay,  whose 2011 Copa America victory has lost value in Fifa's system used to determine rankings.

Wales moved up one place into 37th, Scotland arrested their slide from the last rankings to reach 46th, while Northern Ireland went up one to 101st.

The Republic of Ireland, who lost all three group matches at Euro 2012, stayed in 26th.

England progressed to the knockout stage of Euro 2012 after they topped their group, but were unable to end their 16-year wait to reach the last four of a major competition as they lost on penalties to Italy at the quarter-final stage.

The Fifa world rankings are compiled every month, with ranking points accumulated according to results, the importance of the matches played and the strength of opposing teams.

World and European champions Spain have retained a comfortable lead at the top ahead of Euro 2012 semi-finalists Germany.

Five-times world champions Brazil, who do not have to qualify for the 2014 World Cup as hosts, continued their fall and have reached a record low of 13th.

The decline is due to the fact that they have played less top-level matches in 2012 than some of the other leading nations, and despite reaching the final at London 2012, their ranking will not receive a major boost in September as the Olympics is not a points-scoring competition.

Fifa world rankings - top 20
1. Spain 2. Germany 3. England 4. Uruguay 5. Portugal 6. Italy 7. Argentina 8. Netherlands 9. Croatia 10. Denmark 11. Russia 12. Greece . 13. Brazil 14. France 15. Chile 16. Ivory Coast 17. Sweden 18. Mexico 19. Czech Republic 20. Ecuador

[Andy_M]

This is ridiculous!

Although as outlined in the story the reason Brazil have fallen so far down the rankings is because they aren't playing competitive games as they don't need to qualify for the next world cup so therefore don't pick up the ranking points. Clearly they would be in the top 5 otherwise!

[LRCN]

This is ridiculous!

Although as outlined in the story the reason Brazil have fallen so far down the rankings is because they aren't playing competitive games as they don't need to qualify for the next world cup so therefore don't pick up the ranking points. Clearly they would be in the top 5 otherwise!

would they?

[Andy_M]

This is ridiculous!

Although as outlined in the story the reason Brazil have fallen so far down the rankings is because they aren't playing competitive games as they don't need to qualify for the next world cup so therefore don't pick up the ranking points. Clearly they would be in the top 5 otherwise!

would they?

They are far better than us!

[LRCN]

This is ridiculous!

Although as outlined in the story the reason Brazil have fallen so far down the rankings is because they aren't playing competitive games as they don't need to qualify for the next world cup so therefore don't pick up the ranking points. Clearly they would be in the top 5 otherwise!

would they?

They are far better than us!

we don't know, but from what i hear and have seen right now they are a bit on the edge. i would doubt they are in the top 5 teams of the world atm.

[Burt]

Erm...

FIFA logic strikes again.

[Ordar]

What seems strange about this (as I dont understand it fully) is that Brazil wont be playing any World Cup qualifiers in the next 2 years. So how will they gain any points? Could they end up falling even further back? Plus wont the fact that they're not accumulating any points have an affect on their rankings over the next 3-4 years regardless of how they do in the World Cup and Copa America?

[MJG]

The thing is we do have a very good record in qualifying and also in tournaments. If you ignore penalties and losses outside of 90mins we very rarely get beat.
I don't agree with 3rd and would always put us 8th. Its like any stats based system, depends what the formula is.

[Mr_Moon]

The coefficients for 2008 have just expired, hence why we're ranked highly.

[earlbeatty]

Blimey - it's the Hodgson effect already!!

EB

[Oiseau]

The FIFA rankings make sense. It's a statistical tool and that alone. It does not reflect the quality of football played. I'd defend FIFA's use of the ranking system because it's the only realistic, objective way that we have of measuring the records of international squads.

England's position is an accurate representation of their recent record. They didn't lose a single match at the Euro's in real time, didn't lose any of their international friendlies apart from against the Netherlands (who were ranked at #1/2 at the time and so did not damage England's ranking) and beat quite highly ranked opposition (including Sweden, France and Spain.) This has propelled them to a high position in the rankings.

The reason why South American teams are so under-represented in the current rankings is because they haven't been playing many internationals lately. Teams who participated in the Euro's will increase in the rankings because they played a lot of matches. Similarly, after the Copa América South American teams surge up in the rankings. Last year, for instance, Uruguay were third in the rankings because of it. The time at which the rankings are most accurate is after a World Cup.

You can read about how FIFA's rankings are calculated on their website.

[Patterson]

FIFA rankings aren't about who is perceived to be a better team...it's a convoluted jumble of numbers that result in a coefficient, blah blah blah...

The post above me is the reference for this thread IMO.  Very well explained mate!

[Terry Angus]

This is ridiculous!

Although as outlined in the story the reason Brazil have fallen so far down the rankings is because they aren't playing competitive games as they don't need to qualify for the next world cup so therefore don't pick up the ranking points. Clearly they would be in the top 5 otherwise!

would they?

They are far better than us!

we don't know, but from what i hear and have seen right now they are a bit on the edge. i would doubt they are in the top 5 teams of the world atm.

brazil is a weird one. a lot of their players seem to be stuck in their domestic league, still, which makes me think they can't be that good (ignoring pele), but when you look at the price euro clubs are considering paying for some of them at the age of 20 or thereabouts (oscar - chelsea for £25m, lucas - man u/PSG for £30m, leandro damiao - spurs for £20m?, neymar - madrid/barca for £40m), not to mention players like sandro, hulk and pato, who i don't even think are getting played at the moment, you realise they're gonna be a F-O-R-C-E at the next world cup!!!

[premFlem]

 England couldn't string more than three passes together... I feel were being lulled into a false sense of security maybe?.

[EJL]

Is this just FIFA still saying sorry for England not winning the WC bid?

[hurricane_nz]

Rankings clearly mean nothing. How can England be ranked ahead of Italy and Portugal who both made the semis at the Euros? At the end of the day if some people want to think this means something then I guess not alot you can do about it, but Im sure most England fans would rather come 3rd in a major tournament at the very least than just be ranked 3rd by FIFA!