How friendlies affect ireland fifa rankings

[eekers]

I never cared much about fifa rankings always saw them as a joke when the czechs and the usa were reigning high in them. Now however since fifa have sorted them out and theyre become more accurate and that they're being used solely for seedings i decided to investigate.

here's ireland rankings (http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pUvinS5mTtI98OKY-E8b1Yw&output=html&gid=0&single=true) at the moment

looking at i ask whats the points of friendlies against low ranked teams. If we win them we get hardly any ranking points (taking our average down) ,when we draw them its much worse.

Drawing those two games in america in the summer took 70 points off our ranking (at a time when no other european teams were'nt playing friendlies). add in a simple win against wales on saturday and we get this (http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pUvinS5mTtI8-m-_ziQ2GWA&output=html&gid=0&single=true).
An extra 150 rankings points! Which would mean ireland being ranking 14th in europe and in the second pot on sunday.
A bit of what-ifs but please no more pointless friendlies against low ranked teams. We should play team ranked no lower than 50th in the world of we care about getting a good seeding place in the future.

[Curtains]

If this is true then its worth thinking about especially at the minute when were dropping in and out of pots left right and centre!!

[TheBoss]

Do you know the position Ireland are in ?

[Sligo Hornet]

Do you know the position Ireland are in ?

"DIRE":(

[RogerMilla]

good post eekers bit of a sickener that we could be in the second pot but soem of the third pot teams are best avoided anyway so we lucked out this time .

[Stuttgart88]

Interesting eekers, thanks.

[co. down green]

It certainly shows up a major flaw in the rankings,especially if teams are going to be discouraged from playing friendlies because of the possible loss of points or position in the rankings list.

How can FIFA talk about the development of the game, if teams are afraid to try out or blood young lads in friendlies, in case they drop position or could drop a pool in the run up to a major cup draw.

Maybe no points for friendly games is the way to go.

[Bondvillain]

If it is correct, it could lead to a worldwide stagnation of the game in general, as worldwide, teams ranked below say, 60 (Hello Macedonia, Slovenia, Latvia, Iceland, China etc, all the way down to Malta...) will find it impossible to get a result (or even a fixture) against a "quality" team ranked higher than them, resulting in them slipping further & further down the rankings, with the knock on effect of no new blood hungry for victory & poor results in qualifiers, resulting in a more difficult pot come qualification time, leading to a lower ranking, leading to no friendlies against quality opposition etc. etc. etc. ad infinitum.... A bit extreme, I know, but, "there but for the grace of god", and all that....

[eirebhoy]

It took me a while to put that spreadsheet together. It looks like you're taking all the credit for it eekers. ;) Anyway, there's some slight flaw in it as FIFA have us on 731.

[eekers]

aw crap i should of mentioned it before eirebhoy

i was on my way to doing something similiar the day before you posted that but had no idea how to get the fifa rankings (on the new system) of the teams we played before the new system came in.

also if you take out our wins (yes wins!) in friendlies against china and jamicia in the last 4 years it also improves our ranking!

[eirebhoy]

but had no idea how to get the fifa rankings (on the new system) of the teams we played before the new system came in.
That was the annoying part. I just found some English football site which lists the date the rankings were announced for every month of the last few years. Whatever rankings were in place at the time of the match were then used.

[eekers]

that why they're slightly off from the one fifa released today.
fifa recalculated all the rankings starting with the first ever internationals but havent released the actual data.

anyway in my idealised scenario above we would now be 18th in the world and 14th in europe (second pot).
as it is today we're 35th in the world and 24th in europe (third pot)

[Serb]

that why they're slightly off from the one fifa released today.
fifa recalculated all the rankings starting with the first ever internationals but havent released the actual data.

anyway in my idealised scenario above we would now be 18th in the world and 14th in europe (second pot).
as it is today we're 35th in the world and 24th in europe (third pot)

With a good manager, I think that's a realistic target. I personally believe we could be top 20 in the world material at least anyway. I also agree with the rankings being for competitive matches only also. It would be interesting to get an analysis of that since our recent good results have only really come in friendlies (Denmark / Sweden).

[eekers]

With a good manager, I think that's a realistic target. I personally believe we could be top 20 in the world material at least anyway. I also agree with the rankings being for competitive matches only also. It would be interesting to get an analysis of that since our recent good results have only really come in friendlies (Denmark / Sweden).

taking all friendlies out we would be on 844 points

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pUvinS5mTtI-YFiYkRZ0OLg&output=html&gid=0&single=true

but obviously everyone elses rankings in the world would be higher too.
at the moment fifa rules are that you have to play 5 games a year to generate a ranking for that year. and with this we'd be below those 5 games.

i think if friendlies are dropped then the teams from africa and oceania etc would have even worse rankings. i think maybe instead the points for friendlies should go up :)