World Ranking

[tricky_colour]

tricky, those are the rankings from last October. This is the correct link: http://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/ranking-table/men/
We're still at 31 (same as in May - http://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/ranking-table/men/rank=286/index.html ).
USA dropped one to 25

North have dropped two to 29
Scotland have dropped eight to 42
Wales up three to 18
England up one to 12

Oops! Sorry about that, guess it did seem too good to be true. I obviously never checked the date, Google normally links to the up to date rankings.

[colonelwest]

FIFA going with the ELO rankings going forward, that's Wales plans screwed so!

http://www.espn.co.uk/football/fifa-world-cup/story/3522329/fifa-world-ranking-gets-overhaul-to-stop-manipulation-for-draw-seedings?src=com

[pineapple stu]

Don't tell Gather Round! :p

[Gather round]

Morning Stu, morning everyone. Fellow NI stalwart Ealing Green got in first with the news ;)

Just renewed my Euro 20 qualifying season ticket actually, hope springs eternal

[tricky_colour]

FIFA going with the ELO rankings going forward, that's Wales plans screwed so!

http://www.espn.co.uk/football/fifa-world-cup/story/3522329/fifa-world-ranking-gets-overhaul-to-stop-manipulation-for-draw-seedings?src=com


The present system uses an average score based over a five-year period. However, as friendlies are worth significantly fewer points than competitive games simply playing them is guaranteed to drag down a nation's average score.
Some countries have actively avoided playing friendlies to protect their average score, while other teams -- such as England, Italy and Spain -- consistently play more friendlies and see their score fall.
It still relies on the nations that benefit having strong competitive records, but because of it Switzerland were seeded at the last World Cup finals (http://www.espn.co.uk/football/international-friendly/story/2513448/romania-wales-to-enter-fifa-ranking-top-10), Wales seeded for European World Cup qualifying, and Poland seeded for the 2018 group-stage draw (http://www.espn.co.uk/football/fifa-world-cup/story/3161369/poland-set-to-be-shock-seeds-in-decembers-world-cup-finals-draw).
"It gives, I think, some more weight to official matches and so on but also takes away some of these imbalances we had before," Infantino said. "I hope it will be a little less subject to criticism."



We play quite a few friendlies, so maybe that will help us, I kind of doubt it though. We lost 5 out of the last 8 friendlies.

On the bright side we beat the USA and 7th ranked France could only manage a draw, which ranks us about 6th my calculations. :)

[backstothewall]

FIFA going with the ELO rankings going forward, that's Wales plans screwed so!

http://www.espn.co.uk/football/fifa-world-cup/story/3522329/fifa-world-ranking-gets-overhaul-to-stop-manipulation-for-draw-seedings?src=com

Blue Sky thinking needed in the future

[NeverFeltBetter]

29th in the first rankings under the new system: https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2018/0816/985444-ireland-rise-in-latest-fifa-rankings/

NI 27th. France top, big drop for Germany,

[Fixer82]

Blue Sky thinking needed in the future

These ranking are a Living Thing. We need to get used them

[Eminence Grise]

They should be based on a head to head Showdown because All Over the World they cause so much Confusion. Still, when they're good, it's So Fine and feels like you've been given a Ticket to the Moon, and when they're bad you just got to Hold on Tight and hope for the best because that's The Way Life's Meant to Be. Generally, all I'm Wishing is that we're ahead of them Across the Border.

Fun ELO fact: in The Diary of Horace Wimp, the end segment is a chorus of 'Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Sunday' repeated. Jeff Lynne said Saturday is for football... Amen to that. Yes, I'm a nerd. But I'm a nerd with tickets for the Dublin gig later this year.:nerd:

[NeverFeltBetter]

Joint 29th: https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2019/0404/1040628-ireland-move-inside-world-top-30-following-euro-wins/

[NeverFeltBetter]

47th today, with the biggest drop in points of anyone since the last calculation. Just ahead of the North, just behind Scotland.

[Baldoyler]

Not surprising. It does sound about right for where we are now. I would imagine we will drop further before we start climbing again.

[pineapple stu]

The slightly more scientific eloratings.net (https://www.eloratings.net/) has us in joint 53rd with Slovenia, but having suffered the biggest fall of any country in the past 12 months. The North have fallen almost as much as we have, as have Libya.

And yeah, a further drop to come before we start climbing again unfortunately.

[seanfhear]

Not surprising. It does sound about right for where we are now. I would imagine we will drop further before we start climbing again.
I am surprised we are that high.

[tetsujin1979]

At what point do results start contributing less to the points total? I think it's a five year window, so the games from 2016, and earlier, will be removed from the total soon, i.e. the wins against Italy at Euro 2016, and away to Austria. Unless results start improving, the draws and losses in the Nations League will start to dominate the rankings, and we'll drop even further.

[pineapple stu]

I think FIFA's change in 2018 means that there's no window as such any more. They changed to something closer to the Elo system, which effectively weights towards newer data, and I think statistically it's been shown that games played 100 games or more ago don't impact the current rating at all (ie if you take our 6-1 defeat against Germany and turn it into a 6-1 win, that would have had a big impact on our rating at the time, but if all the subsequent results were unchanged, we would still end up with the same current rating). And then games played between 50 and 100 games ago would only impact the current rating very slightly, etc