http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19177783 How on earth do FIFA work out these rankings. We're ahead of Portugal, Holland, Italy, Argentina and Brazil - all of whom would kick the 7 bells of **** out of us. Ok Brazil and Argentina haven't played a lot of international football so thats why they are so low in the rankings but Italy should be ahead of us.
Seems like no one has gained any points since last time but Uruguay lost a few from a match they played about four years ago. And that just happens to take them below us.
Yep think we discussed this the other week last time they were revised. Makes them totally meaningless as far as I'm concerned!
The FIFA rankings are a mathematical device, and take no account of how 'good' a side actually is. They are one of the less reliable world ranking systems.
Do we have to have a new thread every time the rankings are recalculated? It's been barely a month since the last one: http://www.not606.com/showthread.php/154698-FIFA-World-rankings
If I didn't post this, Lamballana would have, so just for the sake of someone else posting a new thread once in an while I thought I'd post it!
Argentina aren't that good.They've only got good strikers and apart from that they are pretty average. Can't believe England have moved up to 3rd...
You guys do know that these rankings are based on results, right? FIFA doesn't just pull them out of its arse. Copied and pasted from a more sensible part of the internet: In 2011/12. - England won or drew every single competitive game they played; they did not lose a single game - England won all or drew all of their friendly games except one, against Holland - England beat Spain in a friendly Loss percentage in competitive games: 0% Loss percentage overall: 8% In 2010/11 - England won or drew every single competitive game they played; they did not lose a single game - England won all or drew all of their friendly games except one, against France Loss percentage in competitive games: 0% Loss percentage overall: 11% In 2009/10 - England won 7 games and drew 3. - England lost 3 games, two of these were competitive, one was against Germany one against Ukrane. Loss percentage in competitive games: 42% Loss percentage overall: 23% In 2008/09 - England won or drew every single competitive game they played; they did not lose a single game - England won all or drew all of their friendly games except one, against Spain Loss percentage in competitive games: 0% Loss percentage overall: 9%
Yeah, as I said, they are just a mathematical device, but anybody who actually believes England ARE the third best side in the world needs to be sectioned.
Third most consistent would be accurate. Also it's worth noting that losing on penalties is counted as a draw in the FIFA rankings, because it would be unfair to deduct points based on what is essentially a lottery.
Which poses the question, is it better to be consistently slightly above mediocre or the kind of team that gets to a final in one tournament and gets knocked out at the group stage in another? Not from a ranking perspective (as the first is obviously better) but from a general enjoyment perspective.
