FIFA Ranking: Wales under Gary Speed

A Welsh football fan asked me "to do an article giving a statistical look on how Wales fared shortly before and during his time in charge".


Gary Speed's first game in charge of Wales was on 8 February 2011 and the last on 12 November 2011.

I will look at points gained between 8 February and the release of the latest FIFA ranking - 23 November (288 days) and then at points gained between 20 April 2010 and the release of the February 2011 FIFA ranking - 2 February 2011 (288 days), the latest FIFA ranking at the time of Wales' first match under Gary Speed.

08-Feb-2011	IRL	0
26-Mar-2011	ENG	0
25-May-2011	SCO	0
27-May-2011	NIR	405
10-Aug-2011	AUS	0
02-Sep-2011	MNE	1357.5
06-Sep-2011	ENG	0
07-Oct-2011	SUI	1365
11-Oct-2011	BUL	1087.5
12-Nov-2011	NOR	528

Total: 4743 from 10 games - average of 474.3 points.

Based only on results between 8 February 2011 and 23 November 2011, Wales would be ranked 17th.

1	Uruguay	726
2	Denmark	629
3	Italy	619
4	Spain	610
5	Germany	608
6	Bosnia-Herzegovina	582
7	Croatia	568
8	England	565
9	Portugal	561
10	Sweden	550
11	Republic of Ireland	530
12	Chile	495
13	Netherlands	488
14	France	486
15	Mexico	479
16	Greece	475
17	Wales	474
18	Peru	473
19	Russia	469
20	Côte d'Ivoire	461
21	Switzerland	448
22	Colombia	447
23	Argentina	426
24	Brazil	418
25	Czech Republic	410
25	Turkey	410
27	Sierra Leone	409

On to the next 288 days.

23-May-2010	CRO	0
11-Aug-2010	LUX	249
03-Sep-2010	MNE	0
08-Oct-2010	BUL	0
12-Oct-2010	SUI	0

Total: 249 from 5 games - average of 49.8 points.

Based only on results between 20 April 2010 and 2 February 2011, Wales would be ranked 142nd - tied with Vietnam - a difference of 125 spots.

131	Zimbabwe	75
131	Congo	75
133	Chad	72
134	Togo	68
135	Kazakhstan	66
135	Kenya	66
135	Cayman Islands	66
135	Dominican Republic	66
135	Faroe Islands	66
140	Curacao	64
141	Philippines	59
142	Wales	50
142	Vietnam	50
144	Liechtenstein	49
145	Laos	48
146	Chinese Taipei	45
147	Belize	44
148	Cambodia	43
149	Singapore	40
150	Liberia	37
151	Iceland	35
152	India	34

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About me:

Christian, husband, father x 3, programmer, Romanian. Started the blog in March 2007. Quit in April 2018. You can find me on LinkedIn.