Aren't Switzerland running away with their group & Iceland are 2nd?
If it makes people feel any better in my current Football Manager game it's January 2017 and Ireland (under Sean O'Driscoll) are ranked 88th.
The ball is round and has many surprises.
Oh Sweet Lord... "SOD off"... he can never manage us for that reason alone.
Fifa rankings would only have been relevant (in the immediate future) if we had got to the playoff.
Seeing as that's not on the menu. it's the Uefa rankings which matter now for the Euro 2016 qual draw.
If Fifa rankings were used for that, we would surely be in pot 4.
But we're probably in Uefa's pot 3 these days.
Fortunately for us, a win against the Faroes carries the same full quota of coefficient points as a win against Germany, in the Uefa rankings.
edit: I see there's already a thread on Euro 2016I suppose that means the grieving process is over.
Last edited by geysir; 13/09/2013 at 11:10 AM.
And you think we have problems...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24549624
God we need to get this up a good bit - 60th is our worst ranking ever!
It's predicted we'll fall ever so slightly further in the next update: http://www.football-rankings.info/20...obable_25.html
While it doesn't relate directly to Ireland, this article does a nice job of summarising the ranking situation:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/...raw-friendliesSo it's official, England will not be seeded in the World Cup draw. Fifa's latest world rankings, in which the world's top seven will join Brazil as seeds, puts them only 10th. But the frustration is that they might have made it, had they only tried. The difference between success and failure in this race lies not only in results on the pitch, though they obviously help, but in a bit of thought being put in off it. Sure, had England held on to their half-time lead in Montenegro in March, or beaten Ukraine last month, a place in pot one would have been theirs, but the easiest way for the Football Association to have made sure their team got seeded wasn't by getting them to actually play well – which is an awfully complicated business – but by occasionally making sure they didn't play at all.
Originally Posted by thischarmingman
The EFA- like the FAI- can't really afford to pass up friendly dates. They need the income to repay the costs of stadium redevelopment.the easiest way for the Football Association to have made sure their team got seeded wasn't by getting them to actually play well – which is an awfully complicated business – but by occasionally making sure they didn't play at all
...or to support Enda Kenny's favourite charities.
Ha ha.
That does not take into account of Ireland v Latvia game at all ..... and has us down to draw against Poland .... what would it be if we were to beat Poland?
Hmm, that's odd. It does indeed seem the site has overlooked it at least in the list of games that took place on Friday: http://www.football-rankings.info/20...-probable.html
It was a recognised friendly, right?...
Am I correct in thinking that our away friendly against Hungary before the Euros didn't actually count in terms of ranking points as it hadn't been recorded by FIFA as a full international? I recall there was confusion as to whether Duff's 100th cap would actually be recognised. I think the cap was officially recognised by the FAI but I'm not sure FIFA ever formally acknowledged that the game took place.
Whether the prediction site did actually take the Latvia game on Friday night into consideration for November's predicted rankings, I can't be sure. Nor can I be sure where we might be if we beat Poland, sorry. Someone else can do those maths.
Doesn't the guy who operates that site post here occasionally as Edgar?
Edit: Aye, seems Duff's cap was recognised by the FAI, as the power to award full international caps is left to the discretion of the associations. The Hungary game itself, however, was not logged by FIFA as a full international, so presumably didn't count in terms of ranking points: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19662125
Last edited by DannyInvincible; 17/11/2013 at 3:00 PM.
67th in the world - our worst ever!
actual or predictive? i still see us ranked as 60th on fifa.com
I've just been going through the FIFA rankings a bit today and started thinking of the good old days when Ireland were really up there.
We were ranked 6 in Aug 1993, but this doesn’t seem deserved (we had a run of easy games Albania (92), Lithuania (84) and Latvia (82) in 1993). Neither does it seem realistic with that ranking placing us above Brazil who were soon to be 1994 World Champions! In the following months we quickly fell outside the top 10.
Then we were ranked 8 in November 1994 which is a little more realistic on the foot of a successful world cup campaign (beating Italy and progressing past the groups) and a scorching start to the euro 96 qualifying campaign 11 goals in 3 matches culminating in a 4-0 away win against N. Ireland (ranked 44 at the time so they were not tough opposition but at the same time by no means pushovers). We then slipped a little but still the squad of players were the ones that beat Portugal 1-0 in early 1995. So was this the best Irish Team ever?
I dug out a match report for the game against northern ireland, this is the one that seems to have pushed us up into 8th in the world. http://northernirelandmatchreports.w...012/11/06/436/
Anyway the point of the post was this - to put it into context how good they would be today? Below I compare the Irish stars of Nov 94 with current day stars to give a perspective on how good we actually were.
Irish v NI 1994 Club (Club position in 1994/95) Comparable Current Player Alan Kelly Sheffield Utd (Relegated from Prem in 94) Adam Federici Gary Kelly Leeds Utd (5th prem) Ashley Cole Phil Babb Liverpool (4th prem) David Luiz (Babb was most expensive defender in Britain at the time, Luiz is pretty expensive too) Paul McGrath Aston Villa (18th prem) Vincent Kompany Denis Irwin Man Utd (2nd prem) Patrice Evra Staunton Aston Villa (18th prem) James McClean Townsend Aston Villa (18th prem) James McCarthy Sheridan Sheffield Wednesday (13th prem) Wes Hoolahan Keane Man Utd (2nd prem) Mesut Ozil (Keane was most expensive midfield in Britain, I think Ozil is now or must be close) Quinn Man City (17th prem) Shane Long (top striker at top flight mid table club) Aldridge Tranmere (Made promotion playoffs) Robbie Keane (Legend still successful at a slightly lower level)
Obviously most of these players I picked for comparison are in the current set up but the difference is that we are now missing some super stars like the stature of Keane, McGrath and Irwin. I think that that is the key - you dont need a team of super stars but if Ireland could unearth two or three more then we could be qualifying and competing at the highest level again soon.
Here is somewhat an explanation of how I picked the comparable players
Adam Federici:
Similar age to Alan Kelly at the time. Keeper recently relegated to 2nd tier. Fedirici has a decent record, international keeper for Australia and already has already played at the highest level in international football.
Ashley Cole:
Recent top flight champion, playing at top 5 team as was Gary Kelly.
David Luiz:
Luiz is one of most expensive defenders in Britain, playing at top 5 team. This may be too generous to Phill Babb, who only seems to have won a League Cup with Liverpool, but the truth is that he was the most expensive defender when Liverpool bought him in 1994 for 3.6million and this fee was a reward particularly for his fantastic performances at International level.
Vincent Kompany:
McGrath was PFA player of the year previous year and a long long successful career with Man Utd. Terry seems to be the only defender with PFA player of the year in recent times - if you think John Terry (honours list including multiple league titles and european honours compared to a few runners-up medals and domestic cup wins for McGrath) is a stretch then Vincent Kompany - recently won player of the year more recent than Terry's PFA player award. Man City are a slipping team similar to Villa were in 94.
Patrice Evra:
He holds down Irwin's position in the current utd squad. Utd have remained consistent since the beginning of the 90's.
James McClean
James McCarthy
Wes Hoolahan:
Staunton, Townsend and Sheridan all playing at lower table teams, to make it easy ill compare these three to three current Irish internationals at lower table teams. On the face of it the midfield was not as impressive as the rest of the team apart from Keane. All the Villa boys would have been competing in Europe in 94/95 (won the League Cup in 94) so I could have put in McGeady there to even out the european calibre of my imaginary current players team! But I dont think I need to. The Villa boys and the Utd boys makes 5 on the European stage back in 94 and that equals the number from my imaginary Comparable Current Players team. Leeds and Liverpool seem to have missed out on European qualification in 1994.
Mesut Ozil:
Roy Keane was on the cusp of captaining one of the greatest team in the world ever in their most successful era in history. He had become the most expensive player in Britain when he transferred to Utd. It is hard to think of anyone currently playing that deserves to be compared to Keane. Ozil became one of the most expensive midfielders recently when he transferred to Arsenal. So this is somewhat similar to Keane's stature at the time.
Shane Long:
Fairly apt comparison with Quinn I think. Solid player at a mid table team, although Quinn did spend a few years with Arsenal. Long hasn’t played at that level ie one of the big 4 teams.
Robbie Keane:
Playing history at some of the top teams in the league and now playing in a lesser league but scoring a lot of goals there, as Aldridge was with Tranmere and top scorer in Division that year. LA Galaxy enjoyng a level of success as Tranmere did back then (gunning for promotion and missing off in play offs three years in a row).
Anyway, just posting this for fun and in case anyone else finds it interesting (hopefully I've put it on the right thread).
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Bit of a psychological blow having to scroll to page 3 to find our position!
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