Irelands Highest Fifa Ranking

Dempsey

What was Ireland highest official ranking according to FIFA?

Necronomicon

Didn't we go 11th before Euro 2004? If we did, that was the highest I think. Totally open to correction though.

John_C

I remember us being 7th near the end of Charlton't time. Again, I could be wrong.

eirebhoy

August 1993

1 Germany
2 Italy
3 Switzerland
4 Sweden
5 Argentina
6 Republic of Ireland
7 Russia
8 Brazil
9 Norway
10 Denmark
11 England
12 France
13 Spain
14 Mexico
15 Czechoslovakia
16 Netherlands
17 Nigeria
18 Belgium
19 Colombia
20 Poland

Ruu_Old

Wiki says highest rank was 5th in August 1993.

redspider

eirebhoy wrote:

August 1993
3 Switzerland
4 Sweden
6 Republic of Ireland
8 Brazil

Joking or serious?

I've read that FIFA's ranking system used to be seriously flawed but if this was the official FIFA ranking at that time, then it certainly was 'rank'.

Redspider

Bateman

That one from around August 1993 looks about right, 6th sounds more correct than 5th, I don't think we were ever 5th. :eek:

Guy:Incognito

Bateman wrote:

That one from around August 1993 looks about right, 6th sounds more correct than 5th, I don't think we were ever 5th. :eek:

In fairness though, we've never even been the 6th best team in the world.

Andrew 83

I think we justified a high ranking around 93/94. We qualified for USA 94 out of a very tough group with Spain and the Danes (who were European Champions). In the run up to the tournament we beat Holland and Germany away in friendlies then beat Italy in the tournament opener. That was a great record.

The_B_Man

yup, but on the bright side, we finally over took NI in the rankings now! *phew*

redspider

August 1993 was the start of the FIFA rankings. FIFA have subsequently stated that their initial system was faulty, and they have changed it twice since, 1999 and last sumer 2006. Indeed, with Ireland, Sweden and Switzerland in the top 6 at the start, it was clearly faulty. In the begining it was more ike a novelty than anything else.

If we look at all the rankings since the better system in 1999 was introduced (it also has its faults), Ireland managed to get up to 12th or so and that was in 2005! See the attached chart.

The new 2006 system is better because it reduces the favouritism towards the 'weaker' associations (one reason why the USA were always so high). Lets see how it runs over the next 10 years or so .....

Also, check out the ELO rankings ....

Redspider

Vokes

But wasn't the reason Ireland was so high in the rankings back in '93 because they we were one of the most in-form teams in the world over the previous year ..?!

redspider

SofaKing wrote:

But wasn't the reason Ireland was so high in the rankings back in '93 because they we were one of the most in-form teams in the world over the previous year ..?!

Erm, not really. One of the problems with the original system was that you got points per game won etc, so the more games you played and won, the higher you were in the rankings.

Here is Ireland's record in the 25 games up to August 1993:

GP W D L GF GA GD
25 13 8 4 42 23 19

Here are the results from those games in reverse order:

Lithuania (LTU) 0:1 (0:1) Republic of Ireland (IRL)
FIFA WC 1994 Prel. Comp. UEFA VILNIUS LITHUANIA - 16.06.1993
Latvia (LVA) 0:2 (0:2) Republic of Ireland (IRL)
FIFA WC 1994 Prel. Comp. UEFA RIGA LATVIA - 09.06.1993
Republic of Ireland (IRL) 2:4 (2:0) Hungary (HUN)
Friendly 1993 DUBLIN REPUBLIC OF IRELAND - 29.05.1993
Albania (ALB) 1:2 (1:1) Republic of Ireland (IRL)
FIFA WC 1994 Prel. Comp. UEFA TIRANA ALBANIA - 26.05.1993
Republic of Ireland (IRL) 1:1 (0:1) Denmark (DEN)
FIFA WC 1994 Prel. Comp. UEFA DUBLIN REPUBLIC OF IRELAND - 28.04.1993
Republic of Ireland (IRL) 3:0 (3:0) Northern Ireland (NIR)
FIFA WC 1994 Prel. Comp. UEFA DUBLIN REPUBLIC OF IRELAND - 31.03.1993
Republic of Ireland (IRL) 2:1 (0:1) Wales (WAL)
Friendly 1993 DUBLIN REPUBLIC OF IRELAND - 17.02.1993
Spain (ESP) 0:0 Republic of Ireland (IRL)
FIFA WC 1994 Prel. Comp. UEFA SEVILLE SPAIN - 18.11.1992
Denmark (DEN) 0:0 Republic of Ireland (IRL)
FIFA WC 1994 Prel. Comp. UEFA COPENHAGEN DENMARK - 14.10.1992
Republic of Ireland (IRL) 4:0 (1:0) Latvia (LVA)
FIFA WC 1994 Prel. Comp. UEFA DUBLIN REPUBLIC OF IRELAND - 09.09.1992
Portugal (POR) 0:2 (0:1) Republic of Ireland (IRL)
U.S. Cup 1992 FOXBORO USA - 07.06.1992
Republic of Ireland (IRL) 0:2 (0:1) Italy (ITA)
U.S. Cup 1992 FOXBORO USA - 04.06.1992
USA (USA) 3:1 (0:0) Republic of Ireland (IRL)
U.S. Cup 1992 WASHINGTON DC USA - 30.05.1992
Republic of Ireland (IRL) 2:0 (0:0) Albania (ALB)
FIFA WC 1994 Prel. Comp. UEFA DUBLIN REPUBLIC OF IRELAND - 26.05.1992
Republic of Ireland (IRL) 4:1 (0:0) USA (USA)
Friendly 1992 DUBLIN REPUBLIC OF IRELAND - 29.04.1992
Republic of Ireland (IRL) 2:1 (1:1) Switzerland (SUI)
Friendly 1992 DUBLIN REPUBLIC OF IRELAND - 25.03.1992
Republic of Ireland (IRL) 0:1 (0:0) Wales (WAL)
Friendly 1992 DUBLIN REPUBLIC OF IRELAND - 19.02.1992
Turkey (TUR) 1:3 (1:1) Republic of Ireland (IRL)
UEFA EURO 1992 Prel. Comp. ISTANBUL TURKEY - 13.11.1991
Poland (POL) 3:3 (0:1) Republic of Ireland (IRL)
UEFA EURO 1992 Prel. Comp. POZNAN POLAND - 16.10.1991
Hungary (HUN) 1:2 (0:0) Republic of Ireland (IRL)
Friendly 1991 GYOER HUNGARY - 11.09.1991
USA (USA) 1:1 (0:0) Republic of Ireland (IRL)
Friendly 1991 BOSTON USA - 01.06.1991
Republic of Ireland (IRL) 1:1 (0:0) Chile (CHI)
Friendly 1991 DUBLIN REPUBLIC OF IRELAND - 22.05.1991
Republic of Ireland (IRL) 0:0 Poland (POL)
UEFA EURO 1992 Prel. Comp. DUBLIN REPUBLIC OF IRELAND - 01.05.1991
England (ENG) 1:1 (1:1) Republic of Ireland (IRL)
UEFA EURO 1992 Prel. Comp. LONDON ENGLAND - 27.03.1991
Wales (WAL) 0:3 (0:1) Republic of Ireland (IRL)
Friendly 1991 WREXHAM WALES - 06.02.1991


So, you can see that the quality of the opposition was very low in many of those wins. Drawing in Spain and in Denmark were fairly good results.

Overall, I think the main point stands. ie: Forget the FIFA rankings in the early years as they are bogus - garbage in garbage out is the adage that applies most aptly for their early system.

Redspider