The new FIFA rankings are out for October. Top 7 teams seeded (South Africa automatically seeded as hosts) Code: Total WC FIFA 1 Brazil 61.3 29.3 32 2 Italy 58.3 27.3 31 2 Germany 57.3 30.3 27 2 England 54.3 26.3 28 5 France 53.3 23.3 30 6 Argentina 50.0 21.0 29 7 Spain 48.3 25.3 23 8 Portugal 46.3 22.3 24 9 Netherlands 40.7 14.7 26 10 Ukraine 36.7 16.7 20 11 Sweden 36.3 19.3 17 12 Switzerland 33.3 15.3 18 13 Mexico 32.8 19.3 13.5 14 Czech 31.0 6.0 25 15 Ecuador 25.0 17.0 8 16 Nigeria 24.7 2.7 22 17 Ghana 24.3 13.3 11 18 Cameroon 24.0 3.0 21 19 USA 22.7 13.7 9 20 Croatia 22.5 9.0 13.5 21 Turkey 22.0 10.0 12 22 Paraguay 21.7 11.7 10 23 Cote d'Ivoire 21.0 6.0 15 24 Korea 19.7 15.7 4 25 Greece 19.0 0.0 19 26 Uruguay 18.7 2.7 16 27 Australia 18.3 11.3 7 27 Japan 18.3 13.3 5 29 Iran 11.3 5.3 6 30 South Africa 4.0 3.0 1 31 Qatar 3.0 0.0 3 32 Honduras 2.0 0.0 2 Ecuador/Honduras/Qatar/Turkey replaced Colombia/Costa Rica/Denmark/Trinidad. No change in the gap between Spain and Portugal, although France and Argentina both lost a little bit of ground. Mexico drops a bit, while AFC now has a fifth team instead of a fourth CONCACAF team. Much of the following was originally written by eldiablito, so credit to him. Also thanks to him for doing this last time for many months. Apparently he hasn't been online in a month, so I've decided to do it tonight. Plus, I'm up really late when the rankings come out (3 AM central time). FAQ Why is this list different than FIFA's Coca-Cola rankings? Because Fifa's Coca-Cola rankings are only part of the complex seeding formula. What is the seeding formula used for? The seeding formula is used to determine which 8 countries receive seeds. Those 8 teams are heads of each of the 8 groups in the world cup. By being seeded, they get the luxury of not having to play another seeded team until the knockout stage. What is the seeding formula exactly? The complex formula takes into account the performance at the last 2 world cups and the FIFA rankings. Part A: World Cup performance = (2002*1+2006*2)/3 Part B: FIFA Ranking = (12/2007 rank+12/2008 rank+11/2009 rank)/3 Part A + Part B = world cup seeding formula For the purposes of this showing you the current standings in this thread, the current FIFA rank will count as all three years. How is the world cup performance determined? 0 points are awarded if the country failed to qualify that year. 8 points are awarded for the bottom 8 teams in the group stage. 9 points are awarded for the top 8 teams in the group stage who didn't advance. All the countries that advanced to the knockout stage are placed from 1st place to 16th place. 1st place (champs) receives 32 points. 2nd place receives 31 points. 3rd place receives 30 points. etc. All the way to 16th place which receives 17 points. How are the points for FIFA ranking awarded? Similarly to above. First, all 32 teams that qualify are ranked by their FIFA ranking. The best is given 32 points. The worst 1 point. How do you pick which 32 countries to run the seeding formula? I pick the countries based on their FIFA ranking by federation. For example, the best 14 UEFA teams by FIFA ranking since 14 UEFA teams will qualify. This is done primarily for two reasons. It keeps the criteria objective and it runs the formula with the worst-case scenario in mind. 14-UEFA 4.5-CONMEBOL 3.5-CONCACAF 4.5-AFC 5.0-CAF 0.5-OFC Are you sure that FIFA will use this seeding formula? No, it might change slightly. For 2006 they only used the previous 2 World Cups instead of 3 like before. But they've been using the same basic formula since 1994. Previous Editions July 2006 August 2006 September 2006
One thing: Mexico is shown above Croatia in the FIFA Ranking, thus Mexico gets 14 points and Croatia 13. You applied the same rule for Paraguay and USA. Not that it would change anything in the rankings. Pot 1: Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany, Italy, South Africa, Spain Pot 2: Croatia, Czechia, Greece, Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine Pot 3: Australia, Honduras, Iran, Japan, Korea Republic, Mexico, Qatar, USA Pot 4: Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Ecuador, Ghana, Nigeria, Paraguay, Uruguay Special pot: Turkey Group A: South Africa, Ukraine, Japan, Turkey Group B: Germany, Croatia, Mexico, Paraguay Group C: England, Greece, Qatar, Uruguay Group D: Spain, Portugal, Honduras, Ecuador Group E: Brazil, Switzerland, USA, Nigeria Group F: Italy, Netherlands, Korea Republic, Cote d'Ivoire Group G: Argentina, Czechia, Iran, Cameroon Group H: France, Sweden, Australia, Ghana
I didn't notice the USA & Paraguay tied. I'll have to change that. But each team splits the points, it doesn't matter which one is listed first. USA goes from 22.7 to 23.2 Paraguay goes from 21.7 to 21.2
Read the official seeding document for WC 2006 from FIFA -> pdf file There are 3 pairs of teams with the same rank for Dec 2003, but they get a different amount of points. Nation - FIFA Ranking Dec 2003 - Points Code: Portugal 17 21 Costa Rica 17 20 Paraguay 22 17 Korea Republic 22 16 Cote d'Ivoire 70 5 Trinidad & Tobago 70 6 The points are not split between the teams. Also see the discussion regarding this issue -> link At the time, Shackleton was right, they did list Portugal above Costa Rica and so on, but if you look now at the December 2003 rankings, they are listed in alphabetic order.
Why would you want to begin seeding now?? Qualification hasn't even begun yet. Any of those countries may now even qualify lol.
Obviously you're new to BigSoccer. Without rampant speculation and theoreticals things wouldn't be nearly so interesting.
My feeling is that scaryice is keeping it going just because he loves numbers. And for historical reasons. We've had a thread on this for the previous two World Cups. Last time around, it was much more interesting (to Yanks) because there was an outside chance that the US would get a seed... and Mexico got seeded. But now, with the seeding calculation and FIFA ranking calculation changes, the usual suspects will get the seeds and there's almost zero chance of that changing over the next 3 years no matter what happens in qualifying. And, hey, some of us are just weird.