FIFA rankings prove how pointless they are

If you ever wondered whether the FIFA world rankings carried any significance then we now know the answer to that question is an emphatic no.

The reason we know is because of the latest list as below:

Fifa world rankings:
1 Spain
2 Netherlands
3 Germany
4 Brazil
5 Argentina
6 England
7 Uruguay
8 Portugal
9 Egypt
10 Chile

Yes, that’s right, that’s England in sixth place, Portugal in eighth and Egypt, who didn’t make it to the World Cup, are listed in ninth.

What an absolute load of old rubbish that is!

Mighty

It would appear that England’s back-to-back wins in their opening Euro 2012 qualifiers against the mighty Bulgaria and Switzerland have resulted in them actually moving up in the rankings.

Apparently FIFA updated the standings, which take in results over a four-year cycle, using one hundred and fifty-nine international matches played over five weeks. My advice to FIFA is quite simple. Don’t bother!

Formula

I don’t care what formula they use, if they rate England as the sixth best team in the world then it is fatally flawed. This is the England who struggled to draws against the USA and Algeria and scraped a 1-0 win over Slovenia, before being humiliated by Germany in the World Cup. The victories in the two European games since will hardly have the likes of Spain, Holland and Germany quaking in their boots!

In eighth place are Portugal who finished second in their World Cup qualifying group, making it into the play-offs by just one point. They managed to qualify for the main tournament out of the play-offs and then drew with Ivory Coast and Brazil and beat North Korea. After that they surrendered tamely to the Spanish. Since then they have sacked their manager and drawn with Cyprus and lost to Norway!

Record

Also in the top ten are Egypt, who have a great record in the African Cup of Nations but haven’t even qualified for a World Cup since 1990. Their only game since failing to qualify for the World Cup saw them draw at home to Guinea.

I don’t mean to be dismissive of the efforts of these teams but I am simply trying to show that the rankings are absolutely meaningless.

Come on FIFA, do us all a favour and stop bothering to publish them, or at least base them on something that makes some sense.