FIFA Coca-Cola World Rankings are just as bad as FIFA

Published by adam | Filed under Fifa World Cup, World News

The FIFA World Rankings

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If you have your glasses, you will see that England, in fourth position, is ranked ahead of Brazil. The FIFA World Rankings has an obvious glitch in their system. And just look what they had to say…


“The system was revised in 2005 in an attempt to improve its accuracy, taking into account the last four years of results, with allowances made for the importance of the matches and the strength of the opponents. Fifa said the aim was to combine “transparency and simplicity” with “the reality of world football”.

England’s last three results were draws against Switzerland and Ghana, and a win over Wales, who the rankings rate as joint 114th in the world, along with the Faroe Islands.”


As Brazil just drew with the Netherlands, who sit in second position, there is obviously no controversy. Draws with Switzerland and Ghana < draw with Netherlands. So how the hell did England jump over Brazil in the rankings? According to the ranking system, continental cup qualifiers are worth 2.5 times more than friendlies. That is why Mexico, who just beat the US in the Gold Cup final, jumped 19 places to make the top 10 in the #9 spot. I can understand that. Mexico is playing well, winning tournaments, and fully deserving of a mention with the world's elite.


The United States however, dropped two spots to the 24th position, behind Montenegro, Denmark, Sweden, Slovenia, Australia, and Turkey. Funny how the US beat Turkey and Australia last year and advanced out of their group over Slovenia in South Africa.


Greece 12th? Montenegro 16th? Uruguay 18th? Ghana 33rd?
Somebody explain.