England move up to third in latest FIFA rankings - their highest ever position. The top 5 are: Spain, Germany, England, Uruguay and Portugal Can someone tell me how these are decided?
women's rankings: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_Women's_World_Rankings england in 9th on a very appropriate 1966 points.
We're 3rd because it isn't decided by English people. It's decided by FIFA who are neutral and as such don't have this obsessive 'our national team are ****' complex that we have. Any foreign player, manager or fan always respects England as a national team, it's just us who think we're crap cos the papers say so.
Worth noting that we haven't beaten a major national football team in a competitive game for over 10 years.
By the time WC '14 comes around, we'll have reached 1 semi-final in what, 23 years? I know the rankings aren't based on such history but how on Earth our lack of any kind of success (practically EVER) ranks us above the likes of Portugal, Italy and Brazil is beyond me.
We actually did well in the Euros but there is no way we are ranked 3rd in the World when we didn't even make the semi of that tournament
I'm guessing team gb has been classed as England and points have been awarded for Olympic football (as its governed by FIFA), and as team gb beat Uruguay and Uruguay were the rank above we've leapfrogged them. Either that or team gb counts to no national team but Uruguay having a **** Olympic tournament made them concede the points required for England to go above. Only possible explanation. Also do youth teams count towards the rankings as our youths always tend to do well compared to the seniors, maybe our youth teams are keeping us afloat? That would help authenticate my Olympic football theory too as I believe the Olympic teams are officially classed as u-23's even though they contain 3 senior players.
The ranking are based on how many points the team get aren't they? 3 points for a win etc as England win most of the time, just not when it matters we have more points then most teams, hence 3rd position in the world.
If it does indeed work as simply as that then it's massively flawed system. A win over Andorra and a win over Spain shouldn't be considered the same thing.
South America hasn't had any competitive games, while UEFA has, therefore while England has amassed some points, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil etc. haven't.
