Ireland up one place in FIFA rankings

[sligoman]

FIFA’s latest official world rankings sees the Republic of Ireland leapfrog Iran and move into 14th place, just behind last night's friendly opponents Italy.

Iran had moved above Ireland in the last rankings released, but Brian Kerr’s side has moved back into 14th spot where they had been for the previous twelve months.

Ireland now have 709 points, one ahead of Iran and two behind Italy, who have not moved on the table. Next month’s World Cup opponents France have dropped down two places to ninth position.

The top six remain the same as Brazil continue their run in top place closely followed by Argentina, Holland, Czech Republic, Mexico and USA respectively.

[Colbert Report]

losing to italy will knock us down at least one spot

really, who cares about these rankings?? they're useless

[thejollyrodger]

these rankings are a load of cóck. I dont pay any attention to them any more. As long as we are in the top 20 its ok for me. The only rankings that count are after the world cup

[brine3]

How did Iran get up to 15th?

[eirebhoy]

For those that think the FIFA rankings are meaningless this is interesting:

At next year's World Cup in Germany, eight heavyweight teams will receive seeds, one for each of the tournament's eight groups, and thus will avoid having to compete against the seven other seeded powers in the opening round.

If FIFA uses the same system to determine World Cup seeds that it did in 2002, the much-maligned FIFA rankings will count for half of the determining factors. (The other half consists of performances in the past three World Cups, weighted more heavily toward recent results.)

Current top 15 seeds are:
1. Brazil 63.7
2. Spain 48.8
3. Germany 47.8*
4. Mexico 47.7
5. Argentina 47.0*
6. England 46.7
7. Italy 45.5
8. France 43.2
-------------------
9. Netherlands 42.8
10. United States 42.0
11. Denmark 37.5
12. Turkey 36.3
13. Ireland 32.8
14. Sweden 32.2
15. South Korea 29.2*

So if we qualify for the World cup our FIFA ranking could give us a big advantage.

[geysir]

For those that think the FIFA rankings are meaningless this is interesting:

At next year's World Cup in Germany, eight heavyweight teams will receive seeds, one for each of the tournament's eight groups, and thus will avoid having to compete against the seven other seeded powers in the opening round.

If FIFA uses the same system to determine World Cup seeds that it did in 2002, the much-maligned FIFA rankings will count for half of the determining factors. (The other half consists of performances in the past three World Cups, weighted more heavily toward recent results.)

So if we qualify for the World cup our FIFA ranking could give us a big advantage.

Is the criteria they will use still not published?
There are only going to be 8 seeds.
Of the first ten teams listed, it would be an earthshaker if less than 8 of them failed to make the finals.

[Cowboy]

Is the criteria they will use still not published?

No because they dont know the qualifiers yet, based on what I've seen in previous draws they modify the criteria dependent on who they want to get through.

[geysir]

A glaring omission in that list on quality and present form is Portugal even if they had a poor 2002 WC.
It is hard to come up with a seeding system that is 100% fair but can you quibble with the top 9 teams in the list ? Mexico ?
It is a possibility that they try to wrangle in the USA to be a top seed.

On FIFA "fair play"
The Euro zone qual. play off's for the 2002 WC, the draw was made above board.
The way that that draw was made by FIFA possibly was an open swipe at the previous UEFA Euro play off draw which was transparently corrupt.

[Stuttgart88]

the previous UEFA Euro play off draw which was transparently corrupt.

Nobody here in England understood my swipes at UEFA in advance of the draw so beforehand I selected 4 top seeds and 4 bottom seeds from the 8 teams in the play off and what happened? The 4 top "seeds" avoided each other AND each was drawn away from home in the first leg.

Give me a while and I'll calculate the odds...

[geysir]

A half, times three sevenths, times a third, times a fifth, which makes one chance in 70.

I make it a 7 "horse" accumulator with winning odds of, evens, 4/7, evens, 3/5, evens, 2/3, evens.
Makes about one chance in 67.
How did we get to near enough the same place?

[thejollyrodger]

so what does this mean from an irish perspective should we make it to germany ?

We will be in a group with one team from the 8 listed above and we will be trying to get out of the group with one of the seeded teams ? thats the same as always/

THe only thing is, were going to battle a seeded team in the group stages for 1st or 2nd place and if we make it out of the group (in second spot) then we will face another seeded team to progress. so we will have to beat one of those teams