FIFA Rankings August 2011: Spain No Longer #1 Fútbol Team in the World

The title of best soccer team in the world is now for the mighty “Clockwork Orange,” from The Netherlands!

The Netherlands climbed to the top of the FIFA ranking Wednesday, ending the year-long reign of the 2010 World Cup winners.

Two weeks ago, Spain lost a friendly match to Italy; the FIFA points lost as a result demoted the team one position in the world rankings.

Below, are FIFA current official rankings:http://www.hispanicallyspeakingnews.com/notitas-de-noticias/details/spain-no-longer-1-futbol-team-in-the-world/9826/

Re: Spain No Longer #1 Fútbol Team in the World

for droping a game vs italians!!!? XD

in no time they will rise again, along with brazil

canarinhos also drop out top 5!!

FIFA ranking august 2011

Look who's on top
Well, for at least 1 month we, the mighty Orange, are the world's number one!!!

Re: FIFA ranking august 2011

We are Holland, the best.

Re: FIFA ranking august 2011

The Dutch have been incredibly consistent the last few years and deserve to be rewarded. Very impressive.

Re: Spain No Longer #1 Fútbol Team in the World

They can commiserate with their two champions trophies.

Re: Spain No Longer #1 Fútbol Team in the World

I think we can safely say that they are the No 1 ranked according to FIFA, but many would argue that doesn't equate with "best team".

Re: Spain No Longer #1 Fútbol Team in the World

Simply the most consistenty performing team for a long time now. Nope, no titles - for that you need to be strong at the right moment. But it says something about Dutch football and youth training that we produce such consistent players.

Euro 2012 must be ours!

Re: Spain No Longer #1 Fútbol Team in the World

We also lacked luck in 2010. I still have nightmares about Robben...

Are we the only number one without a WC title?

In the FIFA rankings, yes, but they've only been around since 1992. If they did go back further, Hungary probably would have been in that club, too.

Re: Spain No Longer #1 Fútbol Team in the World

Spain have won 15 qualifying matches in-a-row and dropped only 2 points in their last 24 qualifying matches (while winning Euro 2008 and WC 2010 in the process).

Spain are the most consistent, Holland/Germany #2/3.

Re: Spain No Longer #1 Fútbol Team in the World

For overall consistency I suppose Holland deserve the number 1 ranking, especially with our piss poor performances in friendlies lately. At least in the competitive games we show up to play, and that's what counts.

This is simply wrong. The Dutch are rated by FIFA as the best team in the world. That is simply not the same as being the best team in the world. Not the same thing at all.

So....what's the difference and how do you make to being the best team in the world....if you call it the best team?

It's a ranking, which means that it is an attempt to assess what the best team in the world is. But that doesn't make it right. Here's ESPN's ranking: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/spi/rankings?cc=5901. It has Spain ranked as the top team in the world, but that wouldn't justify a headline declaring "Spain still the top team in the world."

A month ago, ESPN had Germany on top, and they have the Dutch in 4th, illustrating the fundamental fact that there's a ton of error in these rankings. People keep trying to use them for purposes that are not legitimate given the amount of error in these rankings. Is it reasonable to conclude that the #1 ranked team is better than the #10 ranked team? Yes, in general, given the amount of error in these rankings, that's a reasonable assertion. Is it reasonable to conclude that the #1 ranked team is actually better than the #2 ranked team? Almost always, no. It's like concluding that politician A is ahead of politician B because A received 44% support in a poll while B received 42%. It's within the margin of error, so you can't reach any reasonable conclusions as to who's ahead.

As to your second question, how do we know who the best team in the world is: Well, most of the time, we don't know, which is why broad declarative statements like "X is the best team in the world" ought to be avoided.

I think in this matter the following message from another forum is relevant:
http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/news/newsid=1497612.html


25/08/2011 at 17:53
Monomatapa (Sweden)
The world ranking is a statistic representation of reality. Statistics is the most used tool in anthropology, sociology, economics and sociology. It is used because it’s the most objective way to look at people and how they behave. Anyone who thinks that the subjective, emotional look of a football supporter is more valid than the statistic method, used in the world ranking, should have his head examined.

The problem with this statement is that we don't use statistics to determine rankings. We use subjective formulae and weightings to come up with a result that approximately reflect the emotional look of a football suporter.

Well, it depends. I'm certainly not going to launch into a blanket defense of going with your gut instead of carefully weighing the evidence (which, optimally, is what a ranking system does). That said, some rankings may be arbitrary collections of statistics that may or may not have any predictive value, in which case they are not better, and may be somewhat worse, than subjective assessment.

Well, when I look at the teletext pages of the BBC, Belgian, German and Dutch broadcasters, the only mentioning of any ranking is always the FIFA one. Never another one. The same goes for newspapers or football magazines.
So it obviously is the only one regarded worth mentioning and in that respect the positioning of the Orange team as the best of the world (for the coming month) is correct.

In that fifa site mentioned by a previous poster it is kind o funny to read the comments. Some people have no brains or refuse to use them. One talked about how the Orange team can be the best if defeated in three finals. Many escape the notice it is a monthly up to date rating, not a beauty contest over the last 60 years.

Oh, come on. Just because something is the most commonly mentioned ranking doesn't mean that is the most accurate. In fact, it is probably less likely to be accurate either because (1) the assembly of the ranking has been drafted with political considerations in mind, rather than accuracy; or (2) it has been dumbed-down so that journalists with limited mathematical ability can understand it.

Point 1: prove it please
point 2: insulting people you donot know (at least not all of them) as an argument pro your opinion is a little bit tacky.

I see this in the business world all the time: simpler measures are preferred to more complex but more accurate measures, because simpler measures are easier to understand. And I see this in sports: e.g., I often see journalists argue that advanced baseball metrics should be disregarded because they are just too hard to understand. If you want to develop a metric that will be commonly accepted, a simpler method may be more likely to suceed even if it is less accurate. It's just recognizing a trade-off.

And there are other trade-offs as well which may lead people to use less accurate rating systems. For example, there is a system in the US that rates college football teams. It determines which teams play in the national championship games, and a few other top bowl games. Teh information used to develop those ratings used to include actual scores from college football games, but the actual scores are no longer used. Instead, they just use the winner and loser of each game, so a 70-0 win and a 14-13 win are treated the same. This was done in the interest of decreasing incentives to run up scores, even though it decreases accuracy.

It seems to me that the primary reason for doubting the accuracy of the FIFA ratings is the limited amount of information that it takes into account--namely, only the scores of international fixtures. If you are interested in this topic, you might want to read this article (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-...8/ce/us/guide-espn-spi-ratings?cc=5901&ver=us), which describes how the ESPN's Soccer Power Index (SPI) was developed. However, as that article acknowledges, "SPI is designed to serve as a general guideline -- as a starting point for debates about team quality. It is not intended to be the ending point or to settle all arguments." The same applies to any rating system.

Brazil should have dropped more! WTF!!!

The FIFA rankings are a joke, and everyone knows it.

Spain defeated the Netherlands in the WC 2010 final and also won Euro 2008, so there is no logical reason that the Netherlands should be ranked ahead of Spain.

The fact that FIFA counts friendlies in its rankings tells you all you need to know about how seriously you should take them...