CONCACAF Nations League 2023/24: 10.000 simulations (August 2023)

The upcoming September window starts a new edition of the CONCACAF Nations League. It will be the third edition and follows only one year after the previous one. It is used as qualification tournament for the Copa America 2024, the South American continental final tournament, which is in 2024 co-organized by CONCACAF (and hosted in the USA) and will be expanded to 16 teams, the 10 from CONMEBOL and 6 CONCACAF teams. It is still not clear if this is a one-off co-operation or the first of a real Americas Cup. Time will tell.

FIFA ranking: September 2023 probable ranking

Here is the probable September 2023 ranking, to be published on Thursday September 21st. In the upcoming September window matches for the following tournaments will be played:

- the final match day in African Nations Cup 2023 qualification. Of the 24 berths for the final tournament in January next year in Cote d'Ivoire 16 are already decided, still 8 to go;

- the CONCACAF Nations League 2024 group stage starts with match days 1 and 2;

- match days 5 and 6 of qualification for EURO 2024;

- qualification for the World Cup 2026 starts, this time in South America with match days 1 and 2 in the group;

- lots of friendlies, featuring f.i. most Asian teams and the top 4 CONCACAF teams that got a bye to the league A quarter finals in November.

FIFA ranking: September 2023 probable results

Here are the probable results of all 180 played and currently scheduled matches up to and including September 17th, used to calculate the September 2023 probable ranking. The results are generated using elo ratings. Also the already played matches since July 17th, (probably) counting for the September ranking, are presented.

Qualification World Cup 2026 10.000 simulations (August 2023)

The qualification tournaments for the World Cup 2026 start this September window in South America, in October in Asia and in November in Africa. Next year's March sees the first qualification matches in CONCACAF while UEFA only starts in March 2025. For OFC the qualification format and schedule is unknown yet.

The World Cup 2026 in USA, Mexico and Canada has been expanded from 32 to 48 berths. Here is the distribution of berths amongst the confederations:

	direct slots			play-off slots
Confederation	2026	2022	growth	2026	2022
AFC	8	5	60%	1	1
CAF	9	5	80%	1	0
CONCACAF	6	3	100%	2	1
CONMEBOL	6	4	50%	1	1
OFC	1	0	-	1	1
UEFA	16	13	23%	0	0
total	46	30	53%	6	4

FIFA ranking: July 2023 final preview

FIFA will publish the second official ranking of 2023 this Thursday July 20th. I consider the ranking published in June as an intermediate ranking as it contains flaws: at least the final of the Intercontinental Cup in India and the final and third place play-off of the Central Asian Nations Cup should have been included. The intermediate ranking was published solely for the draw of the African qualification groups for the WC 2026 last week.

Another thing that Andrea pointed out: Samoa, Tonga and American Samoa played their last official match 4 years ago, in July 2019. They should be excluded from the ranking from now on, until they have played again. That could be at the Pacific games in November.

2024 UEFA EURO qualification: 10.000 simulations (June 2023)

Last week the match days three and four of qualification for EURO 2024 have been played. See here for all the details of the qualification process and the simulation results before the groups started. And see here for the simulation results after the first two match days.

FIFA ranking: July 2023 probable ranking

The July 2023 ranking, to be published on Thursday July 20th, will only be the second ranking of 2023. It seems FIFA decided from now on to publish a ranking only after a NT window has been completed. In this case, immediately following the June window, the Gold Cup will be played so the publication was delayed a bit more to mid July to be able to include that continental final tournament.