5 years ago they were ranked as the second worst country in the world, they're now up to 156th (out of 210). Incidentally, San Marino are the joint worst, along with Anguilla. Must be some British based players that can turn out for Anguilla, get them up the rankings.
In fact, three of the worst five teams in the world are British Overseas Territories (Anguilla, British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands). Wonder if Jarrod Bowen has any family from the Turks and Caicos Islands?
Interesting, the population of San Marino is little bit more than Beverley. So take away all the females, then all those under 16 and over 40. From what is left make a squad of players, say 20 to go off and play international football against players of unimaginable value. It's amazing that they don't get beat 20 or 30 nil in every game. Or are these multi million pound footballers not as good as their value suggests.
Thing is, there's a fair few Italian based players with Sanmarinese heritage that qualify so they have a decent supply. Most of them play in the amateur San Marino league, but a few play for Italian clubs (their main goalkeeper was at Torino for a couple of seasons). It's tough for smaller teams, especially ones in UEFA because they have to play far better opposition on a more consistent basis than say, *****lia or Nepal do in their respective confederations. I mean the Faroes have only recently improved because the likes of Joan Simon Edmunsson, John Frederiksen (who plays with Thomas Mayer at Amstetten) and Brandur Hendriksen have arrived on the scene. In 2008 we were ranked 198th, but thanks to a shift in management and better scouting of players, we rose as high as 74th when we did the double over Greece. One day we'll qualify for a major tournament, I'm sure.
just been looking at the fifa rankings. working on the basis that west germany and germany are the same thing, even though they're not. 8 countries have won the world cup. the 8 countries are all ranked within the top 12, with only germany currently outside the top 9, at 12. the other countries in the top 12 are rank : country 1 belgium 5 portugal 10 denmark 11 mexico denmark and portugal have both won the euros. belgium haven't. mexico has only finished runners-up in the copa america. i looked at world cup runners-up. five of the ten countries that have won it have also finished as runners-up (there hasn't always been a final). germany/west germany have been runners-up four times and won it four times. netherlands and the now divorced czechoslovakia have been runners-up three times each. the countries that have only been runners-up are netherlands (ranked 16), czechoslovakia, hungary, sweden (18), croatia (14). this makes a total of 13 countries that have finished in the top two at a world cup. only hungary (37) and czech republic (36) or slovakia (40) are ranked outside the top 18 at present. the other three top-18 countries not yet mentioned are rank : country 13 switzerland 15 colombia 17 wales i'll summarise that lot 21 world cups to date rank : wc wins : wc 2nd : country 1 : 0 : 0 : belgium 2 : 2 : 1 : france 3 : 5 : 2 : brazil 4 : 1 : 0 : england 5 : 0 : 0 : portugal 6 : 1 : 0 : spain 7 : 4 : 2 : italy 8 : 2 : 3 : argentina 9 : 2 : 0 : uruguay 10 : 0 : 0 : denmark 11 : 0 : 0 : mexico 12 : 4 : 4 : (w) germany 13 : 0 : 0 : switzerland 14 : 0 : 1 : croatia 15 : 0 : 0 : colombia 16 : 0 : 3 : netherlands 17 : 0 : 0 : wales 18 : 0 : 1 : sweden 37 : 0 : 1 : hungary 36 and/or 40 : 0 : 3 : czechoslovakia the czeck republic now wishes to be known as czechia and its pronouns are eff and off.
It's about time this sort of nonsense was stopped. Andorra and their ilk can't and never will provide competition in qualifiers. It's about time a World Cup of sorts was run for smaller nations. It would be great for them. I think Andorra have only won one competitive game, IIRC.
I just watched the highlights on ITV and the first goal was not shown. The game started, then suddenly it was 70 minutes and1-0 showing on the score and just the last 3 goals shown. Very strange. Nevertheless, a comfortable win, and on to Poland.
Imagine England ponderously keeping possession, moving from side to side, slowly creating half chances which they then carelessly miss. You've caught up.
I got the feeling it was a bit like that. However, obviously ITV had made a mistake as the whole program was totally disjointed.
They showed plenty of crowd shots and call me old fashioned but it looked more like the crowd at the Soccer Aid game played earlier in the afternoon then a Wembley crowd for a World Cup qualifier. It cannot have be deliberate surely ?
I don't think it can have been deliberate, it struck me that maybe the editor was leaving and that was his or her last job.
To make these games against the likes of San Marino and Andorra more competitive the higher ranked team should be made to wear blindfolds for the first half. The higher the ranking the more players.
Docile obedient happy clappy crowd like some Orwellian vision. Fair play to the FA, they have steadily replaced their former fanbase with a more affluent and compliant one.
Every country has the right to play another competitively, no matter the ranking. It’s what football is all about. Armenia giving Germany a run for their money in their group is a prime example of why you should never take any team lightly.
