Fifa World Rankings

[Seamuslawless]

Novembers list was just released last week.... anyone notice that Switzerland are in 45th place behind such footballing strongholds as Iraq, Jordan the Ivory Coast and Tunisia ....... surely can't be an accurate reflection. Is the quality of the opposition taken into account in the points system ? :confused:

Ireland remain in 14th by the way.

http://www.fifa.com/en/mens/statistics/index/0,2548,All-Nov-2004,00.html

[inexile]

afaik the system takes into account your results in relation to the strength and ranking of the teams you have played with a highly complex method of points scoring of which im not able to explain, one thing i do know is that they discard your worst 2 results in the last 2 year period i think which would exclude our results against the swiss and nigeria in the summer i think

[Irish_Praha]

Looks like China and Australia are the big movers in the top 50. One of them might sneak into the top 20 if they make it to the WC.

[eirebhoy]

We gained 8 points from last month which is a lot considering we would have lost points having only beating the Faroe's 2-0. We jumped above Germany and Denmark moved ahead of us.

[Schumi]

we would have lost points having only beating the Faroe's 2-0.Really? I didn't think the margin of victory had any impact.

[inexile]

i dont think thats the case eirebhoy
its possible we may have got more points if we had scored more goals but we wouldnt have lost points

[eirebhoy]

Have a look through the months for yourselves.

Points in February 2004 - 709
Points in March 2004 - 705

So we lost 4 points for either the 0-0 draw with Brazil or the 2-1 win over Czech Republic (depending on the date they were released).

Points in April 2004 - 702

So again, we lost 3 points for either our win over Czech's or Romania.

[inexile]

no eirebhoy thats not how it works those points are taken over a period of time not just the one months im not sure of the time frame but i could be either 2 or 4 years so for example if its 2 years now it would exclude our good results against germany spain in the world cup and its first 2 results would be the russia and switzerland defeats which would explain how the points were lost

[Bondvillain]

Yeah, to my knowledge (which is dodgy at best), its a constantly forward rolling timeframe, all the results, good & bad, contained in the 23 months or so prior to each publication date...
to lose points for winning a match, but but failing to knock in a hatful of goals would seem a bit mad...

[eirebhoy]

no eirebhoy thats not how it works those points are taken over a period of time not just the one months im not sure of the time frame but i could be either 2 or 4 years so for example if its 2 years now it would exclude our good results against germany spain in the world cup and its first 2 results would be the russia and switzerland defeats which would explain how the points were lost
Ah I see. Are people at FIFA the only people that know exactly how many points a team gets for beating a certain team? Surely someone could have worked it out by now and updated it up to 2004.

[Superhoops]

Ah I see. Are people at FIFA the only people that know exactly how many points a team gets for beating a certain team? Surely someone could have worked it out by now and updated it up to 2004.
If you fancy some bedtime reading check out http://www.fifa.com/en/mens/statistics/rank/procedures/0,2540,3,00.html to see how the ranking system works.

[eirebhoy]

If you fancy some bedtime reading check out http://www.fifa.com/en/mens/statistics/rank/procedures/0,2540,3,00.html to see how the ranking system works.
I actually read that before but it doesn't tell you the exact formula they use to calculate how many points a team with (lets say) 710 points gets for beating a team with 400 points 2-0. If you know what I mean. :)

I always thought it was up to date (ie. not results from 2 years ago) but surely someone would have worked out the formula by now and have the rankings updated for 2004.

[Superhoops]

I actually read that before but it doesn't tell you the exact formula they use to calculate how many points a team with (lets say) 710 points gets for beating a team with 400 points 2-0. If you know what I mean. :)
I assume that particular formula was one of many devised by the two 'geeks' named in the last paragraph. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Anyway, I don't think we should take too much notice of these rankings, they are like statistics, you can read what you like into them and come up with a conclusion that suits your particular purpose (as policiticans regularly do!).

The reality as far as FIFA rankings is concerned is that if we think we are the 14th best football team in the world, this month or over the last year or two, or whatever period the rankings apply to, then we are kidding ourselves. However, that won't stop us cheering them on.

[thejollyrodger]

I would love to see Ireland at 10 and stay there, though 14 isnt bad. I dont know what it would take to get to 10th, probably a class striker and us to get to the 1/4 finals or 1/2 final

[eoinh]

Novembers list was just released last week.... anyone notice that Switzerland are in 45th place behind such footballing strongholds as Iraq, Jordan the Ivory Coast and Tunisia ....... surely can't be an accurate reflection. Is the quality of the opposition taken into account in the points system ? :confused:

Ireland remain in 14th by the way.

http://www.fifa.com/en/mens/statistics/index/0,2548,All-Nov-2004,00.html

I would agree that Switzerland would be behind those countries mentioned except Jordan

[eirebhoy]

afaik the system takes into account your results in relation to the strength and ranking of the teams you have played with a highly complex method of points scoring of which im not able to explain, one thing i do know is that they discard your worst 2 results in the last 2 year period i think which would exclude our results against the swiss and nigeria in the summer i think
Actually I'm still a bit confused. Why do all the websites say things like "Ireland's good start to the WC qualifying campaign have moved them up 1 place", etc?

[inexile]

because the system involved is a "weighted" system with the most recent games played being worth more points and it carries on on a sliding scale for as i said 2 years i think!! it also excluded your 2 worst results, so for example ireland drawin 0-0 with france last month would be worth more points than drawing with spain because it will be worked on a sliding scale with most recent results getting more points