FIFA Ranking: September 2010 review

FIFA included the Belize - Trinidad and Tobago friendly (0 - 0), although it was played after the official deadline. Nothing strange about it.

Two interesting things:

1. FIFA did include Bahrain - Togo, although according to various news reports, the team fielded by Togo was fake.
2. Also, FIFA didn't remove Mexico - Spain, Lithuania - Belarus, Mali - Guinea and Malta - Macedonia as "A" matches, although in these matches one team or both made more than the allowed 6 substitutions (see more in this post).
   

Draw your own conclusions.

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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.

FIFA Ranking: September 2010 quick update

Thailand won 2 - 1 against India in New Delhi. Thailand climb two places to 102nd, India remain 160th and are among this month's worst movers, dropping 22 places.

See the FIFA Ranking preview.

There's a friendly today between Belize and Trinidad and Tobago, but since it's after the official deadline and not a competitive match, I don't think FIFA will include it in the September ranking. It will be included in the October ranking.

In other news, the Bahrain - Togo friendly match (final score 3 - 0) will most likely be removed from the list of "A" matches since the Togolese FA had no knowledge about it. An agent has gathered some Togolese players and presented them as the Togo national team. More in Republic of Togo. Thanks Filipino Football for the info!

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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.

2014 FIFA World Cup seeding update (8 September 2010)

CONCACAF's new qualifying format could be an advantage for USA and Mexico. With more games for the middle tier teams, these will climb in the rankings and provide more points for Mexico and the USA - of course if the big fish do get the win.

See more info original 2014 FIFA World Cup seeding post.

England up to 7th after their two wins in the EURO 2012 qualifying.

This is the top 20 of the intermediate October 2013 FIFA ranking:

1	Spain	182
2	Netherlands	180
3	Germany	163
4	Argentina	157
5	Uruguay	150
5	Brazil	150
7	England	130
8	Egypt	128
9	Ghana	104
10	Norway	97
11	Portugal	94
12	Slovenia	93
12	Slovakia	93
14	Chile	92
15	Australia	82
16	Turkey	80
17	Greece	79
18	Serbia	77
19	Côte d'Ivoire	76
20	Japan	73
20	Nigeria	73

Mexico are 28th, USA and France 37th, Italy 40th.

Right now, the seeds for the 2014 World Cup would be: Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Argentina, Uruguay, England and Egypt.

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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.

2014 FIFA World Cup seeding for CONCACAF teams (8 September 2010)

There's some new info regarding the qualifying format.

CONCACAF used the May 2007 ranking for the draw, so I'll list the May 2011 ranking and the July 2011 ranking - the last one available at the time of the draw.

Rank - Previous rank - Team - Total points

 1  1 USA                             896
 2  2 Mexico                          819
 3  4 Honduras                        472
 4  3 Costa Rica                      431
 5  5 Canada                          382
 6  7 Panama                          363
 7  8 Jamaica                         347
 8  6 El Salvador                     262
-----------------------------------------
 9  9 Trinidad and Tobago             196
10 10 Haiti                           160
11 11 Guatemala                       145
12 13 Antigua and Barbuda             122
13 12 Grenada                         115
14 14 Guyana                           87
14 14 Cuba                             87
16 16 Bermuda                          80
-----------------------------------------
17 17 Barbados                         70
18 20 St. Kitts and Nevis              68
19 18 Suriname                         67
20 19 Netherlands Antilles             57
21 21 Nicaragua                        53
22 22 Puerto Rico                      48
23 23 St. Vincent and the Grenadines   26
24 24 Cayman Islands                   24
-----------------------------------------
25 25 Belize                           22
26 26 Dominica                         18
27 27 St. Lucia                        13
27 27 Turks and Caicos Islands         13
29 29 British Virgin Islands           12
30 30 Bahamas                           9
31 31 Aruba                             7
32 32 US Virgin Islands                 3
-----------------------------------------
33 33 Dominican Republic                0
33 33 Anguilla                          0
33 33 Montserrat                        0

Canada replace El Salvador in the first pot.

Rank - Previous rank - Team - Total points

 1  2 Mexico                          530
 2  1 USA                             464
 3  4 Honduras                        351
 4  6 Jamaica                         339
 5  3 Costa Rica                      315
 6  8 Panama                          299
 7  5 Trinidad and Tobago             224
 8  9 Canada                          206
-----------------------------------------
 9  7 El Salvador                     205
10 11 Guatemala                       128
11 10 Cuba                            105
12 14 Antigua and Barbuda              97
13 12 Suriname                         96
14 13 Grenada                          93
15 15 Guyana                           85
16 16 Barbados                         81
-----------------------------------------
17 17 Haiti                            68
18 19 St. Kitts and Nevis              66
19 18 Netherlands Antilles             65
20 20 Nicaragua                        44
21 21 Bermuda                          40
22 22 Puerto Rico                      35
23 23 St. Vincent and the Grenadines   25
24 24 Cayman Islands                   24
-----------------------------------------
25 25 Belize                           21
26 26 Dominica                         18
27 27 St. Lucia                        13
27 27 Turks and Caicos Islands         13
29 29 British Virgin Islands           12
30 30 Bahamas                           9
31 31 Aruba                             7
32 32 US Virgin Islands                 3
-----------------------------------------
33 33 Anguilla                          0
33 33 Dominican Republic                0
33 33 Montserrat                        0

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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.

2014 FIFA World Cup seeding for UEFA teams (8 September 2010)

The preliminary draw will take place in July or August 2011.

Assumptions:

- UEFA will again have 13 spots
- UEFA will again use the system with 9 groups
- FIFA will use the July 2011 FIFA ranking to seed the teams

The July 2011 FIFA ranking will include matches played between July 2007 and July 2011. We already 50% of the final ranking. Things can and will change before July 2011 as there are many matches to be played involving European teams: EURO 2012 qualifiers and plenty of friendlies.

UEFA will only use the national team coefficient for the European Championships draws (qualifying and final tournament).

This is the July 2011 ranking (for UEFA only) using matches played up to and including September 7th, 2010 and matches scheduled up to July 2011 (only those on fifa.com).

The "1.0" part is computed this way: points gained / (number of matches played + scheduled).

Montenegro climb from 4th to 1st pot.
Slovakia climb from 3rd to 1st pot.
Lithuania climb from 4th to 2nd pot.
Belarus and Northern Ireland climb from 5th to 3rd pot, with Belgium going the other way.

Sweden climb from 3rd to 2nd pot.
Albania and Moldova climb from 5th to 4th pot.
Georgia climb from 6th to 5th pot, replacing Azerbaijan.

Russia and Portugal drop from 1st to 2nd pot.
Switzerland, France, Republic of Ireland and Czech Republic drop from 2nd to 3rd pot.
Romania, Latvia and Bulgaria drop from 3rd to 4th pot.
Finland, FYR Macedonia and Poland drop from 4th to 5th pot.

Rank - Previous rank - Team - Total points

 1  1 Spain                    1059
 2  2 Netherlands              1032
 3  5 England                   947
 4  7 Germany                   924
 5  9 Norway                    787
 6 25 Slovakia                  773
 7  4 Croatia                   684
 8 36 Montenegro                657
 9  8 Italy                     644
-----------------------------------
10 12 Turkey                    642
11 15 Serbia                    619
12 11 Greece                    618
13  3 Russia                    610
14 20 Sweden                    594
15  6 Portugal                  584
16 17 Slovenia                  583
17 10 Ukraine                   576
18 31 Lithuania                 575
-----------------------------------
19 21 Denmark                   561
19 16 Switzerland               561
21 13 France                    528
22 18 Republic of Ireland       512
23 22 Scotland                  499
24 39 Belarus                   479
25 37 Northern Ireland          469
26 19 Israel                    461
27 14 Czech Republic            444
-----------------------------------
28 24 Romania                   412
29 38 Albania                   411
30 29 Hungary                   380
31 32 Cyprus                    368
32 42 Moldova                   363
33 27 Latvia                    362
34 35 Bosnia-Herzegovina        348
35 28 Austria                   340
36 23 Bulgaria                  329
-----------------------------------
37 30 Finland                   326
38 26 Belgium                   311
39 34 FYR Macedonia             294
40 33 Poland                    279
41 43 Estonia                   262
42 46 Georgia                   261
43 41 Wales                     241
44 40 Iceland                   207
45 44 Armenia                   190
-----------------------------------
46 45 Azerbaijan                137
47 49 Kazakhstan                130
48 47 Luxembourg                117
49 48 Faroe Islands             108
50 50 Liechtenstein              80
51 51 Malta                      60
52 52 Andorra                     0
52 52 San Marino                  0

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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.

2014 FIFA World Cup seeding for CAF (8 September 2010)

The preliminary draw will take place in July or August 2011, not in November 2011 as I assumed, but that doesn't change much, because CAF used the July 2007 ranking for the draw.

Assumptions:

- CAF will again have 5 spots
- CAF will keep the current qualifying system
- FIFA will use the FIFA ranking to seed the teams
- CAF will choose the July 2011 ranking for seeding

The July 2011 FIFA ranking will include matches played between July 2007 and July 2011. We already have 50% of the formula. Things can still change as there are many matches to be played involving African teams: CAN 2012 qualifiers and plenty of friendlies.
This the July 2011 ranking (for CAF only) using matches played up to and including September 7th, 2010 and matches scheduled up to July 2011 (only those on fifa.com).

The "1.0" part is computed this way: points gained / (number of matches played + scheduled).

Botswana climb from third to first pot.
Guinea-Bissau climb from fifth to third pot.

South Africa climb to first pot.
Cape Verde Islands and Sudan climb to second pot.
Burundi and Chad climb to third pot.
Central African Republic climb to fourth pot.

Benin and Mali drop to second pot.
Libya, Angola and Cogo drop to third pot.
Namibia, Congo DR and Swaziland drop to fourth pot.
Comoros and Mauritius drop to fifth pot.

Rank - Previous rank - Team - Total points

 1  1 Egypt                    612
 2  4 Côte d'Ivoire            597
 3  7 Ghana                    535
 4  2 Gabon                    520
 5  6 Cameroon                 494
 6  3 Nigeria                  462
 7  5 Algeria                  421
 8  8 Burkina Faso             415
 9 11 Tunisia                  413
10 16 South Africa             411
11 12 Uganda                   400
12 33 Botswana                 376
----------------------------------
13 14 Malawi                   327
14 13 Zambia                   308
15 21 Senegal                  306
16 28 Cape Verde Islands       302
17 10 Benin                    292
18 23 Guinea                   291
19  9 Mali                     266
20 22 Gambia                   257
21 17 Mozambique               255
22 30 Sudan                    225
23 19 Morocco                  220
24 15 Togo                     219
----------------------------------
25 20 Libya                    217
26 29 Tanzania                 194
27 18 Angola                   171
28 27 Kenya                    157
29 35 Sierra Leone             156
30 25 Zimbabwe                 147
31 24 Congo                    132
32 26 Rwanda                   126
33 49 Guinea-Bissau            121
34 38 Burundi                  112
35 36 Madagascar                99
36 37 Chad                      98
----------------------------------
37 31 Namibia                   97
38 32 Congo DR                  88
39 43 Liberia                   77
40 34 Swaziland                 76
40 40 Niger                     76
42 42 Ethiopia                  75
43 39 Equatorial Guinea         51
44 52 Central African Republic  50
45 40 Lesotho                   47
46 45 Mauritania                32
47 44 Eritrea                   29
48 45 Somalia                   23
----------------------------------
49 47 Comoros                   19
50 48 Mauritius                 15
51 49 Djibouti                  12
52 51 Seychelles                11
53 52 Sao Tome e Principe        0

---

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.

FIFA Ranking: September 2010 preview (IV)

Only one match left before the deadline: the friendly India - Thailand. The totals for these two teams could change as follows:

India (W: 131, D: 98, L:82)
Thailand (W:287, D: 279, L:275)

In the ranking table, the value displayed for these 2 teams is the minimum possible value. This means that even if they lose, their total can't drop.

Best movers

48 - Guinea-Bissau
33 - Montenegro
31 - Cape Verde Islands and Central African Republic

Worst movers

-24 - El Salvador
-22 - India
-21 - Iceland

India can avoid this by not losing against Thailand.

Best movers in the top 50:

33 - Montenegro
20 - Cyprus
14 - Northern Ireland

Worst movers in the top 50:

-19 - Latvia
-14 - Belgium
-13 - Venezuela

Saudi Arabia replace Bahrain in the AFC top 5.

Gabon up to 4th in Africa, overtaking Nigeria. Algeria out of the top 5.

Panama - 5th in CONCACAF. Trinidad & Tobago fall from 5th to 8th.

Seven teams will improve their best ever ranking:

Slovakia (16th - 17th in May 1997)
Burkina Faso (39th - 45th in July 2010)
Montenegro (40th - 64th in May 2010)
Cyprus (43rd - 57th in October 2007)
Belarus (55th - 57th in June 2008)
Uganda (63rd - 66 in April 1995)
Botswana (83rd - 93rd in July 2010)

Four teams will return to their worst ever ranking:

Macau (197th - first achieved in August 2008)
Andorra (202nd - first achieved in November 2009)
Papua New Guinea (203rd - first achieved in July 2009)
San Marino (203rd - first achieved in July 2009)

Six teams will have their worst ever ranking:

France (27th - 25th in April 1998)
Romania (46th - 42nd in July 2010)
Poland (66th - 61st in March 1998)
Morocco (96th - 83rd in August 2010)
Congo DR (132nd - 124th in July 2010)
Mauritius (193rd - 183rd in August 2009)

September 2010 rank - Team - September 2010 points - +/- Ranking - +/- Points

1	Spain	1824	0	-59
2	Netherlands	1663	0	4
3	Germany	1490	1	26
4	Brazil	1482	-1	-42
5	Argentina	1351	0	63
6	England	1191	1	66
7	Uruguay	1182	-1	30
8	Portugal	1049	0	-13
9	Egypt	1034	0	-19
10	Chile	1004	0	16
11	Croatia	998	3	30
12	Greece	973	0	-2
13	Italy	965	-2	-17
14	Norway	958	8	80
15	Serbia	945	-2	-24
16	Slovakia	919	11	90
17	Paraguay	904	-2	-57
18	USA	899	0	-32
19	Slovenia	897	0	-20
20	Ghana	889	3	15
21	Switzerland	882	-4	-58
21	Turkey	882	7	72
23	Côte d'Ivoire	877	3	34
24	Australia	874	-4	-37
25	Russia	868	-9	-88
26	Ukraine	838	-2	-32
27	France	835	-6	-55
28	Mexico	795	-3	-58
29	Denmark	781	0	-4
30	Japan	773	2	5
31	Gabon	768	3	13
32	Sweden	760	3	13
33	Republic of Ireland	745	3	11
34	Nigeria	733	-4	-40
35	Algeria	732	-2	-27
36	Israel	721	2	-12
37	Cameroon	717	3	7
37	Czech Republic	717	-6	-52
39	Burkina Faso	703	6	57
40	Colombia	684	-4	-50
40	Montenegro	684	33	236
42	Lithuania	675	10	104
43	Cyprus	643	20	120
44	Korea Republic	640	0	-11
45	Northern Ireland	638	14	98
46	Romania	631	-4	-66
47	Scotland	617	-6	-82
48	Peru	613	-9	-113
49	New Zealand	605	5	48
50	Bolivia	591	0	14
51	Hungary	567	11	33
52	Honduras	565	-6	-62
53	Costa Rica	561	0	-1
54	Bulgaria	556	-11	-116
55	Belarus	554	23	151
56	Tunisia	551	8	32
57	Iran	546	8	29
58	South Africa	545	8	41
59	Bosnia-Herzegovina	544	-2	-2
60	Venezuela	531	-13	-61
61	Austria	528	-1	-8
62	Belgium	526	-14	-63
63	Uganda	523	6	64
64	Finland	521	-13	-55
65	Mali	518	-10	-30
66	Poland	504	-10	-43
67	Albania	502	3	47
68	Latvia	494	-19	-85
69	Benin	489	-8	-46
70	Panama	487	27	173
71	FYR Macedonia	479	-5	-25
72	Ecuador	477	-14	-68
73	Saudi Arabia	460	-3	5
74	Zambia	433	-2	-16
75	Bahrain	432	-7	-34
76	Jamaica	425	6	53
77	Cape Verde Islands	422	31	161
78	Malawi	415	-4	-9
79	Senegal	405	12	67
80	Moldova	398	9	48
81	Guinea	394	21	108
82	China PR	389	-5	-17
83	Botswana	388	10	59
84	Wales	382	0	16
85	Estonia	375	9	54
86	Mozambique	374	-6	-7
87	Togo	371	-12	-50
88	Canada	359	13	72
89	Georgia	357	21	120
90	United Arab Emirates	349	0	1
91	Gambia	345	12	60
92	Oman	344	-11	-33
93	Angola	341	-6	-16
94	Trinidad and Tobago	334	-18	-84
95	Syria	331	-3	-5
96	Morocco	330	-13	-41
97	Kuwait	329	-12	-36
98	Uzbekistan	327	-10	-24
99	Jordan	318	-1	18
100	Iceland	308	-21	-77
101	Sudan	295	19	97
102	Azerbaijan	286	3	20
103	Qatar	278	-5	-22
104	Thailand	275	0	-1
105	Armenia	273	-9	-45
106	Korea DPR	271	-6	-17
107	Libya	262	-13	-59
107	Iraq	262	-1	-1
107	Yemen	262	2	13
110	El Salvador	252	-24	-108
111	Tanzania	240	0	5
112	Rwanda	225	-1	-10
113	Cuba	218	1	3
114	Kenya	215	2	5
115	Guatemala	214	4	13
116	Namibia	212	-1	-1
117	Congo	202	-11	-61
118	Zimbabwe	195	-5	-29
119	Singapore	189	1	-9
120	Guyana	182	2	-8
121	Barbados	180	6	6
122	Burundi	179	20	54
123	Antigua and Barbuda	175	6	7
123	Haiti	175	8	9
125	Vietnam	174	2	0
126	Kazakhstan	171	-1	-13
127	Fiji	161	3	-6
127	Grenada	161	5	-2
129	Turkmenistan	154	4	2
130	Luxembourg	153	-13	-56
131	Indonesia	152	4	9
132	Congo DR	144	-9	-43
132	Sierra Leone	144	5	14
134	Chad	142	-10	-43
135	Ethiopia	137	9	21
136	Hong Kong	135	-3	-17
137	Suriname	133	-11	-48
138	Faroe Islands	132	-20	-74
138	Liberia	132	18	38
140	Guinea-Bissau	127	48	108
141	Myanmar	126	-1	-1
142	Swaziland	122	-6	-14
143	Maldives	117	0	0
144	Malaysia	111	-5	-17
145	Tajikistan	108	3	2
145	Bangladesh	108	7	4
145	New Caledonia	108	9	9
148	Sri Lanka	104	5	3
149	Liechtenstein	102	-8	-24
150	Malta	96	1	-9
151	St. Kitts and Nevis	94	-6	-16
151	Lebanon	94	-3	-12
153	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	93	7	6
154	Niger	91	-9	-19
154	Madagascar	91	-6	-15
156	Lesotho	88	-1	-8
156	Nepal	88	3	0
158	Nicaragua	86	3	0
159	Kyrgyzstan	83	4	5
160	India	82	-22	-47
161	Eritrea	80	-4	-12
162	Bermuda	75	-4	-16
162	Pakistan	75	2	0
164	Equatorial Guinea	73	-19	-37
165	Philippines	67	0	0
166	Vanuatu	63	-4	-21
166	Netherlands Antilles	63	-1	-4
168	Mauritania	53	0	-9
169	Chinese Taipei	52	-4	-15
169	Puerto Rico	52	1	0
171	Central African Republic	50	31	50
172	Palestine	49	-1	-1
173	Comoros	43	-1	0
174	Solomon Islands	40	-5	-20
175	Somalia	39	-2	0
176	Laos	37	-3	-2
177	Cambodia	33	1	0
177	Dominica	33	1	0
179	Belize	32	1	0
179	Mongolia	32	1	0
181	Cayman Islands	26	-8	-13
181	Samoa	26	-5	-12
181	Dominican Republic	26	3	0
184	Seychelles	22	1	-2
185	Brunei Darussalam	21	2	0
186	Turks and Caicos Islands	19	-6	-13
186	St. Lucia	19	2	0
188	British Virgin Islands	18	3	0
188	Djibouti	18	3	0
190	Tonga	17	-4	-6
190	Cook Islands	17	3	0
190	Guam	17	3	0
193	Mauritius	16	-10	-11
194	Bahamas	13	-17	-21
194	Tahiti	13	-6	-6
194	Afghanistan	13	1	0
197	Macau	12	-1	0
198	Bhutan	9	-1	0
199	Aruba	7	-1	0
200	US Virgin Islands	5	-1	0
201	Timor-Leste	4	-1	0
202	Andorra	2	-1	0
203	Papua New Guinea	0	-1	0
203	San Marino	0	-1	0
203	American Samoa	0	-1	0
203	Anguilla	0	-1	0
203	Montserrat	0	-1	0

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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.