FIFA World Rakings

Discussion in 'Ireland' started by frankk, Sep 3, 2002.

  1. frankk

    frankk New Member

    Aug 29, 2002
    Dublin/Donegal
    Just wondered what everyone thinks of the FIFA ranking system. I know it has its detractors (Mark Hughes of Wales for one!) but I think it’s a pretty good indicator, with a few exceptions.

    1 Brazil 859
    2 Argentina 781
    3 Spain 775
    4 France 772
    5 Germany 764
    6 Mexico 733
    7 England 728
    7 Portugal 728
    9 Italy 714
    9 United States 714
    11 Turkey 707
    12 Denmark 703
    13 Ireland Republic 699
    14 Netherlands 693
    15 Colombia 688
    15 Yugoslavia 688
    17 Cameroon 682
    18 Belgium 677
    19 Paraguay 674
    20 Sweden 673

    For the record – our upcoming opponents
    30 Russia 637
    53 Georgia 536
    65 Switzerland 510
    93 Albania 432
     
  2. Slash/ED

    Slash/ED New Member

    Apr 19, 2002
    Dublin
    Mexico 6th!?!?!?!
     
  3. Don Homer

    Don Homer New Member

    Jun 2, 2002
    Dublin, Ireland
    To turn it into a thread for this board, lets just look at Ireland's rank.

    I know the rankings go back more than two years in forming their statistical scores, but two years is enough of a look-back to form a crude hypothesis...

    Of the top 20, Ireland has played five of the others in the past two years, with a record of 1 win, 6 draws and no defeats (I do not know if that is the correct statistical treatment of our loss to Spain on penalties, but I'm still sensitive on the subject!).

    Its also worth pointing out that we recently beaten the States (=9) and Denmark (12) in friendly matches.

    The fact that we are not losing to these top teams means that, statsitically, we are worthy of being up there with them.

    In addition, we are also unbeaten in all but one competitive game since the start of WC qualification and unbeaten in all but one friendly game in the past two years (I think...).

    On this basis, we are a very hard side to beat and have achieved both WC qualification and made it as far as the knock-out stages in the tournament itself.

    However, Ireland has only (!) beaten the Dutch of the other 19 top teams in the past two years. So it would be very hard to justify a top ten ranking if we are not beating more of our closest rivals...

    Therefore, based on performances in the past two years, we are better than most right now (hence being in the top 20), but not really better than those in the top 20 (hence being somewhere outside the top 10).

    Saying that Ireland is better than or even on a par with the Dutch seems a little far-fetched, but we are arguing quantitative measurements here such as each team's win/loss columns, rather than qualitative measurements such as the playing strength of squads, managerial ability, etc.

    Perhaps a thread for an alternative ranking system could be started on the appropriate board...
     
  4. Samarkand

    Samarkand Member+

    May 28, 2001
    Please NOOOOOO!!!!! All we will need then is another 'Who's better, Pele or Maradona?' thread.
     
  5. Slash/ED

    Slash/ED New Member

    Apr 19, 2002
    Dublin
    Or even who was better, Gilesy or Brady?
     
  6. Don Homer

    Don Homer New Member

    Jun 2, 2002
    Dublin, Ireland
    MENTAL HEALTH WARNING: Do not read the following if you hate talking stats!


    Finally decided to see what actually drives these ratings and found out a few more reasons for Ireland’s rankings improvement:

    * Getting a goal in nearly every game has scored us consistent points, regardless of the result.

    * However, the fact that we do not tend to get more than 1 or 2 goals does not really affect our score, as most of the weighting for goals scored is on the first one. All subsequent goals have less significance.

    * The scoring system really benefits a team on the rise (which Ireland has been), as they gain quite a bit from doing well against teams rated higher than them. In the upcoming Euro qualifiers, this will now act against us, as we will be playing teams all ranked below us.

    * World Cup matches are weighted twice as much as friendlies, while all qualifiers are weighted 1.5 times as highly.

    * It actually looks back eight years. So until this summer, USA'94 has been factored into our score, alebit that its influence decreased every year!


    Finally, just to pick up on Slash/ED's surprise, its worth noting that Mexico and USA are handicapped on account of their region – their regional games are only worth 85-90% of Ireland’s for the purposes of rankings. Whether this balances out getting to play Caribbean island nations and small Central American states is outside the scope of this thread!
     

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