FIFA Ranking - August 2012

GavRedKing

Latest rankings are up.

Rep of Ireland are 26th.

England are now the 3rd best team in the world.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/aug/08/england-third-fifa-world-rankings?newsfeed=true

England have moved above Uruguay in the standings, which are led by Spain with Germany in second place. The points that the South American side earned in winning the Copa América a year ago lost some of their value under the complicated system of co-efficients used to determine the rankings.

England were outclassed by Italy in their quarter-final in Kiev six weeks ago, yet are ranked three places higher than the finalists. Portugal, who reached the semis at Euro 2012, are also lower, as are Holland and Argentina. In a further quirk of the standings, Brazil are 13th – one position below Greece and three beneath Denmark.

England's lofty position asks significant questions of the way the rankings are calculated. Apart from a friendly win over Spain last November and the 5-1 thrashing of Croatia in a qualifier for the 2010 World Cup, England's results have been mixed in recent years. The last victory against significant opposition at a major competition was the 1-0 win over Argentina at the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea.

Fifa rankings are based on all international matches, including friendlies, played in the previous four years. The criteria included are the outcome, status of the match, opponent's strength and the strength of team's confederation. Wins against high ranking opponents in competitive matches are valuable, and only results over the past 12 months count in full. Those from the previous year count half, while games played up to three and four years earlier have even less significance.

More in the article.

Top 30 here.

Aug 2012

1. Spain 1605
2. Germany 1474
3. England 1294
4. Uruguay 1236
5. Portugal 1213
6. Italy 1192
7. Argentina 1098
8. Netherlands 1053
9. Croatia 1050
10. Denmark 1017
11. Russia 1016
12. Greece 1003
13. Brazil 991
14. France 980
15. Chile 953
16. Côte d'Ivoire 939
17. Sweden 909
18. Mexico 862
19. Czech Republic 854
20. Ecuador 836
21. Colombia 835
22. Japan 829
23. Switzerland 828
24. Australia 807
25. Norway 780
26. Republic of Ireland 779
27. Paraguay 747
28. Hungary 746
29. Korea Republic 740
30. Turkey 735

Cokeistan

FIFA's ranking system is hilarious, how England are ahead of the likes of Italy, Portugal, and Uruguay is baffling. I'd imagine it's because they normally have decent results during the qualifying matches

saiint

i bet these rankings were done by the english haha
dont know how their 3rd in the rankings
their not exactly a top class team

GavRedKing

Thats it basically, England have done well in their qualifying campaigns and by and large have done well in friendlies against big teams around them to booth, they also havent missed a major tournament since WC 94 Euro 2008 .

Someone has put up an equation of how they work it out but England tend to always be in and around the top 10 and are very consistent.

Local_Chap

GavRedKing wrote: »

Thats it basically, England have done well in their qualifying campaigns and by and large have done well in friendlies against big teams around them to booth, they also havent missed a major tournament since WC 94.

Someone has put up an equation of how they work it out but England tend to always be in and around the top 10 and are very consistent.

Euro 2008?

mike65

It should be noted now tight the points are from the 3rd to 6th, the top two are away free.

Brazil are crap! They better get the kids promoted pronto.

GavRedKing

mike65 wrote: »

It should be noted now tight the points are from the 3rd to 6th, the top two are away free.

Brazil are crap! They better get the kids promoted pronto.

The current crop mixed with some of the Olympics squad will have a big chance to win on their own soil but the pressure will be unreal.

They seriously lack a top quality goalkeeper but the rest of their options are fairly strong. If they can find Thiago Silva a reliable partner at CB they shoud be ok too.

Guy:Incognito

Does the same thing really need to be done over and over a few times a year (as long as England are top 10)?

Rankings are released, people spend a few days giving out about how crap the rankings are and that England are way too high. Then forget about it and start again next time they come out.

TaosHum

To be fair, England played four Championship games, which I think are worth far more points than the friendlies being played by the South American sides.

Two wins and two draws for England in the Euro's was a decent haul also.

Schism

The FIFA Rankings are a good indicator if taken very loosely but are not accurate in any way.

For example :
12. Greece
13. Brazil

Greece are a good side and should be ranked pretty highly but there's no chance they should be higher than Brazil.

stovelid

Cokeistan wrote: »

I'd imagine it's because they normally have decent results during the qualifying matches

Imagine getting ratings for winning competitive games. What's all that about?

GavRedKing

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Does the same thing really need to be done over and over a few times a year (as long as England are top 10)?

Rankings are released, people spend a few days giving out about how crap the rankings are and that England are way too high. Then forget about it and start again next time they come out.

Next release is 5th September so until then I'll give it a break. :pac:

I know what your saying and I think the rankings should be updated every quarter at most.

Drumpot

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

Does the same thing really need to be done over and over a few times a year (as long as England are top 10)?

Rankings are released, people spend a few days giving out about how crap the rankings are and that England are way too high. Then forget about it and start again next time they come out.

I dont have a problem with the English team and dont mind them doing well (unlike when I was younger). But for them to be ranked the 3rd best team in the world is ridiculous. Not because I hate them, just because they havent played well in any major tournament since 1996. They have had the odd impressive result, mainly in qualifiers, but they have been at best average in practically every tournament they have qualified for.

This is the reason I think having them as a top 3 team is just baffling . . The system is broken, not because its England, but because they havent beaten a team of note in the top 10 of the world in a major tournament in years. More often then not they will not beat most of the top teams in big tournaments, if the rankings system wants to have any credibility it needs to be revamped to factor in that England are seldom capable of beating any good teams in the big tournaments.