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How the hell do these rankings work? Are England really the 6th best national team in the world? I find it hard to believe considering their performances in South Africa!!

1. Spain
2. Holland
3. Germany
4. Brazil
5. Argentina
6. England
7. Uruguay
8. Portugal
9. Egypt
10. Croatia
13. Russia
18. France
36. Republic Of Ireland
43. Northern Ireland
52. Scotland
112. Wales
114. Qatar


[urlnp=http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/lastranking/gender=m/fullranking.html]LINK [/urlnp]to full list

HAHAHAHAHAHAH France 18th HAHAHAHAHAHA

Would have thought Uraguay would possibly be above us because they went on a bit further but if you look at England's pre World Cup qualification performances in their group compared to many others, it's perfectly reasonable. England went into that tournament as one of the strongest teams & blew it.

Whether they'll stay 6th looking at the current team is very very doubtful. More like 16th.

They take into consideration all competitive matches played in the last 4+ years if I remember correctly. And the coefficient should also vary regarding the strength of the opposition team (eg. a win vs Germany counts more than a win vs Togo) - related to its position in the World Ranking.

EDIT plus every competitive match has a different coefficient.

England is probably 6th due to its trashing of opponents in the WC and EC qualifiers

Do World Cup matches get taken into account for rankings now? I know there was some controversy about it a couple of years back...

If it's the same as the rugby world rankings, it's based on a system where the higher the team you beat are, the more points you accumulate. England having beaten Switzerland (#21 at the time) away by 2 goals will have kept them pretty highly ranked because of this.

BlueinBosnia wrote:Do World Cup matches get taken into account for rankings now? I know there was some controversy about it a couple of years back...

If it's the same as the rugby world rankings, it's based on a system where the higher the team you beat are, the more points you accumulate. England having beaten Switzerland (#21 at the time) away by 2 goals will have kept them pretty highly ranked because of this.

They do as far as I know, and their coefficient is the highest. F.e. Italy was briefly top of the ranking in 2006 following its capture of the WC

I think it's safe to say that that's more a reflection of how shite other nations are as opposed to us being the 6th best team in the world

Egypt should not be 9th. If you can't even make it to the World Cup, you don't deserve to be in the top 10. I don't care what the rules say.

ryanmjo wrote:Egypt should not be 9th. If you can't even make it to the World Cup, you don't deserve to be in the top 10. I don't care what the rules say.

I think Norway being in 12th is far more shocking- they haven't qualified for an international football tournament in 10 years. However, they've beaten Cyprus and Iceland away, and Portugal at home so far in their qualifying group.