FIFA Releases New Rankings, World Still Confused

Bigus attempting to understand England's new ranking.

FIFA released the newest world rankings this morning, and there have been some minor changes in the top 15 teams. Considering the recent results of the Confederations Cup, it is not surprising that Brazil has vaulted into 1st place, moving up 4 spots and pushing Spain to 2nd. The former were the biggest movers within the top 10, with no one else gaining or losing more than 3 spots. However, there are some new entrants into the top 15 based on results from their past several matches.



Your new top 15 are presented here:

1 (+4) Brazil (1672 pts)
2 (-1) Spain (1590 pts)
3 (-1) Netherlands (1379 pts)
4 (0) Italy (1229 pts)
5 (-2) Germany (1207 pts)
6 (+3) Russia (1161 pts)
7 (-1) England (1135 pts)
8 (-1) Argentina (1091 pts)
9 (+1) France (1082 pts)
10 (-2) Croatia (1031 pts)
11 (+6) Greece (1001 pts)
12 (+2) USA (983 pts)
13 (+3) Switzerland (930 pts)
14 (+6) Serbia (925 pts)
15 (+9) Denmark (909 pts)


So, Greece, Serbia and Denmark all make a significant move and wind up in the top 15 based on recent performance. Brazil and the US get recognition for their achievements in the Confederations Cup, and England lose 1 position from the June rankings (but are back to where they were in May) based solely on Russia moving ahead of them.

But how exactly are these rankings calculated? Well, the rankings cover all international "A" matches over the past 4 years, with the importance of each year gradually declining (from 100%-50%-30%-20%) in reverse order (i.e. the past 12 month period is the most important), and they include the following elements:

(M) is the result of each match for Win-Draw-Loss (3 pts; 1 pt; 0 pts)
(I) is the importance of the match (1=friendly; 4=FIFA World Cup)
(T) is the strength of the opponent ( [200-FIFA ranking]/100 )
(C) is the strength of the opponent's FIFA confederation, which is based on results in the past 3 World Cups (wins per confederation per match)

So, the total points (P) accumulated is calculated as:

P = M x I x T x C x 100

If that's not enough math for the day, you can read the complete details of how the points are calculated in FIFA's handy little guide (PDF warning!).

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New FIFA World Rankings Released.

Today FIFA have released the latest world rankings after the last round of World Cup qualifying games. England are up to 7th after winning all 5 of their qualifiers (including the stuffing of Croatia) and scoring 16 goals in the process. During this period England also beat Germany in Berlin (get in!) and shoved 4 past Slovakia.

Follow me after the jump for a look at the FIFA rankings in a little more depth.

So here's the top ten.

FIFA World Rankings:
1. Spain
2. Germany
3. Holland
4. Brazil
5. Italy
6. Argentina
7. England
8. Croatia
9. Russia
10.France

European Champions Spain stay in top spot after winning all 6 of their WC games thus far. They still look impressive although they are in a pretty weak group with the likes of Armenia, Belgium and Estonia.

Germany have won 5 five of their qualifiers and drawn one, against Finland. You can only beat who you play, right? Germany are not a great team in my eyes, but as long as they win, they will stay were they are.

Holland have won all of their qualifiers so far and conceded just one goal in doing so. To Macedonia. This is quite surprising as the Dutch have never really been known for keeping clean sheets with their style of attacking footy.

Brazil are done. There. I said it! Lucky to be 4th. Washed up, found out. D.O.N.E.
6 draws and a 2-0 defeat to Paraguay in their qualifiers. No one should fear Goofy and his mates anymore, the standard of many world teams has improved and Brazil may as well stay home next summer. They are second in their CONMEBOL group, the lord knows how! Their recent run deserves a drop out of the top ten but somehow they are sticking around at number 4.

Italy have won 4 and drawn 2 in qualifying. They are still top of their group with 14 points, but the Republic of Ireland are right behind them.

Argentina have hired a disgusting fat cheat as a manager and as a result God is punishing them. They sit 4th in the CONMEBOL group, 4 draws and 3 defeats. Last week they were thumped 6-1 by BOLIVIA. Yeah that's right BOLIVIA. BOLIVIA beat them 6-1. They were O-BOLIVIA-TED. Sorry. I really do enjoy seeing Maradouche struggle. It could be a little perverse, I know. 6th? FIFA are having a laugh. Maybe they missed a 1 off the front.

Bolivia. 58th in the rankings.

England are 7th and they look great at the moment. The WCQ wins and the victory over Germany in Berlin have English folk genuinely excited for next summer. I know I am. 7th is still a bit crap, when you consider England's improvement over the last year and the fact that our group is tougher than most, we really should be higher.

Croatia are next. They have won 4, lost 1 and drawn 1, against the Ukraine. What else can you say? They will likely pip the Ukraine to second place.

Russia are 9th and this is largely due to the 'Guus' factor. Current Chelsea and Russia manager Hiddink is not a bad manager to say the least. Russia are improved of late and have won 4 of their 5 qualifiers. They are second in their group to Germany but could catch the Germans when all is said and done.

France are 10th, why oh why oh why. WHY? They lost 3-1 to Austria, drew with Romania and only managed to beat the mighty Lithuania 1-0 away and at HOME. They also recently lost to Argentina in a friendly and drew 0-0 with Uruguay. In a nutshell, France are not the France they were. Their day has been and it ain't coming back for a while. They should be grateful to be 10th.

Other teams worth a mention are Portugal who rank 11th, Scotland at 24th and how about this... Northern Ireland are 27th, EIGHT places above the Republic of Ireland.

No, no, no I didn't forget, of course, how could I forget the U.S. America is now 15th. A position earned after beating soccer giants Trinidad and Tobago (75th), Guatemala (111th) and Cuba (98th). I know, I know. You can only beat who you play! This is why I am starting a 'USA for CONMEBOL' campaign. It's the nearest group right?

So who is last? That honor goes to Papua New Guinea who rank 202nd. Papua don't preach AT all. To no one. A Google search even failed to find an image!

Full rankings can be found here.

-Bigus.

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US Rises 7 Spots

The latest FIFA World Rankings have been released. Spain still tops the list ahead of WC Champs Italy. Germany, Brazil and the Netherlands round out the top 5. Argentina is at number 7 behind Croatia. The Czech Republic, Russia and Portugal round out the top 10.

England comes in at number 14 unchanged from the previous ranking. The US, however, has jumped 7 places to number 21 ahead of Egypt (22), Paraguay (23), Mexico (24)(Yeah! Suck it!)and Ghana (25).

Top 30 after the jump...


(Rank) (Country) (Points) (Change in Position)
1 Spain 1643 0
2 Italy 1365 0
3 Germany 1336 0
4 Brazil 1280 2
5 Netherlands 1258 -1
6 Croatia 1223 -1
7 Argentina 1200 0
8 Czech Republic 1111 0
9 Russia 1076 3
10 Portugal 1075 -1
11 France 1035 0
12 Cameroon 1027 2
13 Turkey 1021 -3
14 England 982 1
15 Bulgaria 969 1
16 Israel 961 3
17 Greece 945 1
18 Romania 927 -5
19 Ukraine 893 7
20 Uruguay 887 2
21 USA 861 7
22 Egypt 860 -1
22 Paraguay 860 3
24 Mexico 841 0
25 Ghana 839 -5
26 Scotland 820 -10
27 Nigeria 818 0
28 Sweden 794 3
29 Côte d'Ivoire 779 -6
30 Poland 763 0

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