World Ranking

[bennocelt]

Agree with paragraph 3. Somewhat agree with paragraph 4. I think the main 22-23 players picked are by and large the right ones. The enlarged squads are a bit of two fingers to the next in lines. O'Neill has lived for the now and hasn't cared much about succession planning. I think he has been too hung up on which clubs and in which division players play for. I thought there was a good case to call up Hourihane a year ago, maybe John Egan. Hoban would be another. But O'Neill has been pretty unequivocal that there is nothing coming through.

Wrt tactics etc., I just can't see how Roy Keane is happy with how we approach these games. I wonder is all well at HQ.

I dont know, Id say he is more than happy to accept his nice pay packet for sitting on the bench looking gruff, the big sack of s..........

(sorry Stutts for that:p)

[nigel-harps1954]

EDIT: Damn your edit davidatrb

[davidatrb]

EDIT: Damn your edit davidatrb

I forgot to delete Slovenia from Pot 3. Just fixed!

[geysir]

It's mentioned in all sports news reports in Iceland, that not only will "our boys" be in pot 2 for the time, but they will do so just ahead of Denmark.
Apparently that has almost equal importance and raises many a contented smile.

We could be in pot 6, but if we are just ahead of Denmark, then it's not all bad news.

[Charlie Darwin]

We could be in pot 6, but if we are just ahead of Denmark, then it's not all bad news.
They may be playing football with their fancy notions of "passing" and "winning" but they're not so different from Ireland after all.

[davidatrb]

That's my predictions anyway, I guess we'll find out on July 9th.

Apparently I got my sums right. ESPN have calculated the same pots.

http://www.sportsjoe.ie/football/ireland-seeded-fourth-ahead-of-draw-for-2018-world-cup-qualifiers/28773

[Bungle]

Portugal beat Italy last night so looks like Italy will be 2nd seeds. There will be some very messy groups.

[BonnieShels]

Hopefully though, for once, we will get a really handy one that we can make a mess of.

[DeLorean]

Up eight places to 52nd but confirmed Pot 4 for World Cup Qualifying.

http://media.balls.ie/uploads/2015/07/09092958/Screen-Shot-2015-07-09-at-09.29.35.png

Ireland to be fourth seeds in Russia 2018 qualification draw (http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/international/ireland-to-be-fourth-seeds-in-russia-2018-qualification-draw-1.2278868)



UEFA World Cup qualifying pot 1: Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Romania, England, Wales, Portugal, Spain, Croatia/Italy


UEFA World Cup qualifying pot 2: Croatia/Italy, Slovakia, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, France, Iceland, Denmark, Bosnia-Herzegovina


UEFA World Cup qualifying pot 3: Poland, Ukraine, Scotland, Hungary, Sweden, Albania, N Ireland, Serbia, Greece


UEFA World Cup qualifying pot 4: Turkey, Slovenia, Israel, Republic of Ireland, Norway, Bulgaria, Faroe Islands, Montenegro, Estonia


UEFA World Cup qualifying pot 5: Cyprus, Latvia, Armenia, Finland, Belarus, Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Moldova/Kazakhstan


UEFA World Cup qualifying pot 6: Moldova/Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Georgia, Malta, San Marino, Andorra

[Deckydee]

Thats what 400K per annum gets you.

[Wolfman]

Who cares? We're cr*p and the next 3 tournaments from 2018 look awful.

[davidatrb]

Up eight places to 52nd but confirmed Pot 4 for World Cup Qualifying.

http://media.balls.ie/uploads/2015/07/09092958/Screen-Shot-2015-07-09-at-09.29.35.png

Ireland to be fourth seeds in Russia 2018 qualification draw (http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/international/ireland-to-be-fourth-seeds-in-russia-2018-qualification-draw-1.2278868)

Some notes on the various pots here:

http://fog2014.blogspot.ie/2015/07/fifa-rankings-day.html

[DeLorean]

Our relentless rise continues. (https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2015/0806/719488-republic-of-ireland-rise-to-50th-in-world-rankings/) Watch your backs Cape Verde.


FIFA World Rankings (http://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/ranking-table/men/)

[nigel-harps1954]

Hauld on there just a minute...Wales are ranked higher than Spain?

Er..

[DeLorean]

It's lunacy of epic proportions that any system would allow England ahead of them in such a short time frame, having done very little of note... but Wales, Sweet Mother!!

[Crosby87]

Irish slip 3 spots, now one spot ahead of powerhouse Guinea.
And the hits just keep on coming.
http://www.the42.ie/the-latest-fifa-world-rankings-are-here-2361376-Oct2015/

Any of you london based chaps going to the Jets game on sunday?

[paul_oshea]

Most would be going to the rugby Crosby

[swinfordfc]

Hope this will help tonight :) ... but lets wait till Sunday night :)

[tricky_colour]

Hope this will help tonight :) ... but lets wait till Sunday night :)

Got to knock us up a few points surely?

Not sure how it works though do we get more points based on the teams ranking? I guess you must?

[NeverFeltBetter]

Absolutely. Ireland will be getting a fair heap of points for this, but the specific number eludes me.

[boysingreen]

Be great slotting into that #1 slot after beating the world champs.

Not sure if #1 contender (#2) slot goes to Germany or Conor McGregor.

[swinfordfc]

If we were to beat Poland .... think we would be about 28/29th in the rankings .... roughly

[fionnsci]

Can anyone tell me if this will aid our co-efficient for the purposes of seeding for the play offs (assuming we don't go all the way hup)?

[eekers]

Can anyone tell me if this will aid our co-efficient for the purposes of seeding for the play offs (assuming we don't go all the way hup)?

Play off seeding is done on uefa rankings.
Latest - http://www.footballseeding.com/national-ranking-uefa/

These are the likely play off teams. Numbers are their current rankings.
6 netherlands or 26 turkey
12 ukraine
15 denmark
18 ireland


28 slovenia
21 sweden
24 norway
27 israel or 16 bosnia

Sweden however can go past Ireland with 2 wins against Moldova(h) Liechtenstein(a).
We could still end up as top seeds or bottom. Holland messing up would help.

[Stuttgart88]

See Davidatrb's post on the matter. Foot.ie perfection, even if he did confuse destiny with destination.

[DannyInvincible]

Who would be the lowest ranked team ever, or in recent years even, to have beaten Germany in a competitive game? We must be close in 54th.

[TheBoss]

Who would be the lowest ranked team ever, or in recent years even, to have beaten Germany in a competitive game? We must be close in 54th.

Just a quick check. They seem to lose in October ;)

Poland were 70th last October.
Turkey were 62nd in October 1998.

[DannyInvincible]

Poland were ranked 44th when they beat Germany. They'd been ranked 70th the month prior to that, but were 44th when they met Germany. Think you're right on Turkey (or they were the last team to beat them ranked below us anyway), although they were ranked 60th when they beat Germany. It was exactly 17 years ago today, funnily enough.

[DannyInvincible]

I also must apologise. You were completely correct, it seems. My conflicting information above was incorrect. The rankings haven't always been announced on the 1st of every month, which was the source of confusion.

But, anyway, yes, Germany seem to go bad round October, just like San Marino always come good in February.

[Crosby87]

Stupid question but....ill ask anyway. Do Germany's all time stats include being West Germany? Or is it a separate entity? BC WG is basically or was basically always Germany right? I mean soccer wise?

[DannyInvincible]

Aye, Germany are seen as the official successor to West Germany. Today's Germany are considered to have won the World Cup in 1990 even though they were then West Germany. If East Germany had ever won the World Cup, I don't think it would be historically classified as a triumph for the present German team. East Germany are deemed defunct by FIFA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_men%27s_national_association_football_team s#Former_national_football_teams), along with Saarland, South Vietnam and South Yemen.

[Crosby87]

So....of all of these nations that have changed names and borders over the years, only 4 are deemed defunct? That's amazing.

[tricky_colour]

As we beat the champs we should be top of the rankings.
If we are not Blatter must go.

[tetsujin1979]

This list of losses by the world champions was posted on Twitter yesterday, not sure how accurate it is though: https://twitter.com/irish_abroad/status/652420677077729280

[DannyInvincible]

The Polish ranking of 44th was released on the 23rd of October, as far as I can make out, whilst they were 70th from the previous release when they would have beaten Germany on the 11th of October, 2014.

I believe that Germany have been world champions on four occasions and we have beaten them during three of their reigns; in 1954, 1994 and 2015.

[DeLorean]

So we're up twelve places to 42nd and ahead of Scotland. Things can change pretty fast in the wonderfully flimsy world of the FIFA World Rankings. (http://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/ranking-table/men/)

Austria were 40th at the start of qualifying and lie 10th now. To be fair they had an outstanding qualification campaign in what looked a very difficult group at the outset.

[pineapple stu]

Worth noting Belgium are now the best team in the world apparently, for the first time ever. Wales drop 7 to 15, back below England.

Bosnia up 10 places to number 20.

[DeLorean]

I find it impossible to understand Belgium being top of the pile. It was hardly a flawless qualification campaign and what have they actually done to set them apart? I'm sure the maths work out but it's just daft.

[NeverFeltBetter]

While, unfortunately, it won't improve Ireland's seeding for the draw next month, the win tonight is surely going to propel the team up a good few more places? 22 in the difference, actual quality notwithstanding.

[swinfordfc]

I'm guessing between 30-35th placed in December rankings :)

[pineapple stu]

Slightly annoying now that the World Cup draw was done before the Euros ended, as has usually been the case.

Though we didn't get the worst of groups in the end, so no point complaining too much I guess.

[swinfordfc]

We be 31st and N Ireland will be 30th so all good :)

[BonnieShels]

We be 31st and N Ireland will be 30th so all good :)

Not really... I would prefer them to be 32...

[DannyInvincible]

This is how the December rankings are expected to look:

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc12/poguemahone85/Capture_zpslum6r4sb.png

According to this (http://www.football-rankings.info/2015/11/fifa-ranking-december-2015-preview-ii.html), we'll be the fourth-best movers in the world for 2015.

[BonnieShels]

This is how the December rankings are expected to look:

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc12/poguemahone85/Capture_zpslum6r4sb.png

According to this (http://www.football-rankings.info/2015/11/fifa-ranking-december-2015-preview-ii.html), we'll be the fourth-best movers in the world for 2015.

I'd love to know what the WC groups would look like if the draw was done now, ie. if those teams drawn were switched for teams now occupyimng those positions.

[backstothewall]

The rankings are truly a farce.

Probably about accurate for us actually, but it baffles me how you can come up with a system that has Bosnia above Poland, never mind France.

[TrapAPony]

Belgium the best? Switzerland 12th? Hungary 20th? Bosnia 22nd? France 25th? Poland 34th?.....Yes indeed :rolleyes:

[backstothewall]

Not really... I would prefer them to be 32...

I see what you did there. Very good

[thischarmingman]

The rankings are truly a farce.

Probably about accurate for us actually, but it baffles me how you can come up with a system that has Bosnia above Poland, never mind France.

I'm sure everyone has a good idea of how the rankings are calculated, but this article is a good synopsis of the process, and a good read:

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/oct/17/england-seeded-switzerland-world-cup-draw-friendlies


Fifa's ranking system heavily rewards competitive fixtures – a European team will get 2.5 times more points for a result in World Cup qualifying than the same result against the same team at the same time in a friendly. The most points it is possible to win in a friendly – by beating the world's No1 team – is 600, which is still below Switzerland's average. If even winning a friendly can hurt a top team's ranking, imagine the damage that drawing or losing can do.

[BonnieShels]

So, I did out all WCQ groups as they would have been drawn if the December rankings were used.

(NB* There is an anomaly in that England, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Netherlands would HAVE to be in 6 team groups, but I am not sure of the criteria for moving them on to a 6 team group as they were drawn in July so it isn't an exact reflection but it can be edited as soon as someone clears that up.)




A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I


Germany
Portugal
Belgium
Switzerland
England
Austria
Belgium
Spain
Italy


Bosnia
Hungary
Turkey
Wales
Czech Republic
Romania
Croatia
Slovakia
France


Sweden
Poland
Albania
Greece
IRELAND
Irish Football Association Representative Team
Iceland
Denmark
Ukraine


Belarus
Israel
Slovenia
Serbia
Bulgaria
Scotland
Norway
Cyprus
Finland


Azerbaijan
Estonia
Armenia
Kazakhstan
Faroe Islands
Lithuania
Georgia
Montenegro
Latvia


Luxembourg
Andorra
San Marino
Malta
Macedonia
Liectenstein
Moldova