Friday, August 19, 2011

FIFA Ranking: It's up to Spain to claim first place

If Spain win against both Chile and Liechtenstein they will return to the top.

If Netherlands win against both San Marino and Finland and Spain tie Chile and defeat Liechtenstein, both teams will be tied for 1st in the FIFA rankings.

Assuming Spain win against Liechtenstein and Netherlands against San Marino, then this is how the totals can change:

Netherlands (L: 1480, D: 1510, W: 1571)
Spain (L: 1554, D: 1571, W: 1605)

If Spain lose against Chile, Netherlands need to win against Finland to remain alone at the top.

I ran 10000 simulations for the matches taking place between now and October 12th.

September ranking

Netherlands alone at the top - 10.27%
Tied with Spain - 17.11%
In second place behind Spain - 72.62%

October ranking

Netherlands alone at the top - 17.98%
Tied with Spain in 0.07%
In second place behind Spain - 81.95%

Netherlands 1st (or tied for 1st) in both September and October - 8.1%

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 World Cup seeding: AFC 4th round

AFC have announced the draw for the 4th round will also be based on the FIFA rankings.


2014 F1FA World Cup Brazil™ - Asian Qualifiers Round 4 - Draw
The Committee decided to take the latest FIFA/Coca Cola rankings at the time of the Draw for Round 4 as F1FA Ranking has already been implemented for Round 3.

Yes, it's F1FA, not FIFA :)

The last match day of round 3 takes place on February 29, while the first match day of round 4 is scheduled for June 3.

I think the draw will take place in March, using the March FIFA ranking that will be released based on my calculations on March 15.

4 years ago, the 4 lowest seeded teams of the 10 qualified for the 4th round were placed in a single pot.

Here's the March 2012 FIFA ranking, counting scheduled games as defeats:


1 Australia 773
2 Japan 761
3 Korea Republic 709
4 Iran 582
5 China PR 515
6 Saudi Arabia 471
7 Bahrain 455
8 Qatar 448
9 Uzbekistan 444
10 Jordan 416
11 Syria 412
12 Kuwait 402
13 Iraq 384
13 United Arab Emirates 384
15 Oman 382
16 Indonesia 354
17 Thailand 342
18 Singapore 315
19 Korea DPR 314
20 Lebanon 202
 
Pot 1: Australia, Japan
Pot 2: Korea Republic, Iran
Pot 3: China PR, Saudi Arabia
Pot 4: Bahrain, Uzbekistan, Jordan, Kuwait

It's Kuwait instead of Qatar because there must be two teams from each group. Iran (Pot 1) and Bahrain (Pot 4) are in Group E with Qatar and Indonesia.

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 visiting my blog

I noticed two weeks ago on StatCounter that I received a couple of visits from someone using Federation Internationale De Football Association as Internet provider.

See the screen shot from StatCounter.

Looking over Google Analytics it seems someone from FIFA made 5 visits in the last month: July 26, August 5, 12 (two visits) and 15.

See the screen shot from Google Analytics.

It might be the cook or the doorman, who knows? :)

Whoever you are, welcome!

Also, hello to the person from the Scottish FA that has visited my blog twice in the last month: July 22 and August 12.

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.

Friday, August 12, 2011

FIFA Ranking: Netherlands dethrone Spain

With some help from Italy and the London riots, Netherlands finally claimed the top spot in the FIFA ranking (see the August FIFA ranking final preview).

Why did the London riots help the Netherlands? For top teams, friendlies will bring their average points down. Before the cancelation, I wrote:

"If Spain lose against Italy and Netherlands defeat England, Netherlands will overtake Spain. If Spain manage a draw and Netherlands get the 3 points, they will be tied for 1st place with 1581 points."

However, with the England friendly canceled, Netherlands' total rose to 1596 points - and they only needed Italy to hold Spain to a draw.

These are Netherlands' top 10 matches (point-wise):

126 - 12/Oct/2010 Netherlands - Sweden 4 - 1 (2012 ECQ)
123 - 25/Mar/2011 Hungary - Netherlands 0 - 4 (2012 ECQ)
123 - 29/Mar/2011 Netherlands - Hungary 5 - 3 (2012 ECQ)
111.75 - 07/Sep/2010 Netherlands - Finland 2 - 1 (2012 ECQ)
90 - 08/Oct/2010 Moldova - Netherlands 0 - 1 (2012 ECQ)
69.88 - 02/Jul/2010 Netherlands - Brazil 2 - 1 (2010 WC)
64.29 - 06/Jul/2010 Uruguay - Netherlands 2 - 3 (2010 WC)
59.09 - 24/Jun/2010 Cameroon - Netherlands 1 - 2 (2010 WC)
58.59 - 28/Jun/2010 Netherlands - Slovakia 2 - 1 (2010 WC)
57.88 - 14/Jun/2010 Netherlands - Denmark 2 - 0 (2010 WC)

These 10 matches are worth 883.49 points - more than 55% of Netherlands' 1596 points.

P.S. I do know I'm not the only one computing the ranking - but if you're a journalist and use info from my blog, please mention the source.

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: August 2011 final preview

FIFA will publish the ranking on August 24.

Only 5 matches left before the deadline for matches - all friendlies.

14/Aug Liberia - Sierra Leone
16/Aug Fiji - Samoa
17/Aug Oman - Kuwait
17/Aug Barbados - India
18/Aug Fiji - Samoa

This is how the totals can change for these 8 teams.

Kuwait (L: 333, D: 336, W: 341)
Oman (L: 303, D: 307, W: 317)
Sierra Leone (L: 302, D: 313, W: 334)
Liberia (L: 226, D: 239, W: 265)
Barbados (L: 148, D: 152, W: 161)
Fiji (LL: 129, LD: 137, DD: 146, LW: 154, DW: 163, WW: 180
India (L: 109, D: 111, W: 116)
Samoa (LL: 26, LD: 34, DD: 43, LW: 51, DW: 60, WW: 77)

The values displayed in the table below are the lowest possible.

Biggest change is at the top - we have a new leader - the Netherlands replace Spain.

Brazil drop to 6th and are replaced by 5th placed Uruguay as the top team in CONMEBOL.

Best movers:

18 - Seychelles
15 - Vietnam
12 - Zimbabwe

Worst movers:

-14 - Central African Republic and Sierra Leone
-10 - Tajikistan
-9 - Curacao

Sierra Leone can avoid this by not losing against Liberia.

Best movers in the top 50:

6 - Algeria
5 - Russia and Nigeria
3 - Slovakia

Worst movers in the top 50:

-5 - Korea Republic
-4 - Czech Republic and Venezuela
-3 - Ukraine, Senegal and Bulgaria

Nigeria overtake Burkina Faso for 4th in Africa.

Uruguay replace Brazil at the top of CONMEBOL. Paraguay replace Peru in the top 5.

Vanuatu replace New Caledonia as 3rd in Oceania.

Netherlands replace Spain as UEFA 1st. Italy replace Portugal as 5th.

Four teams will improve their best ever ranking:

Netherlands (1st - 2nd in November 1993)
Belize (147th - 148th in July 2011)
US Virgin Islands (148th - 149th in July 2011)
Mongolia (161st - 163rd in July 2011)

England will return to their best ever ranking - 4th - first achieved in December 1997.

Three teams will return to their worst ever ranking:

Eritrea (189th - first happened in October 1998)
Samoa (191st - first happened in May 2007)
Brunei Darussalam (199th - first happened in December 2004)

Seven teams will drop to their worst ever ranking:

Wales (117th - 116th in February 2011)
Iceland (123rd - 122nd in June 2011)
Myanmar (168th - 167th in May 2011)
Lesotho (185th - 184th in July 2011)
Bermuda (186th - 185th in December 1998)
Mauritania (190th - 187th in July 2011)
Tonga (194th - 193rd in September 2009)

August 2011 rank - Team - August 2011 points - +/- Ranking - +/- Points 


1 Netherlands 1596 1 54
2 Spain 1563 -1 -25
3 Germany 1330 0 25
4 England 1177 2 31
5 Uruguay 1174 0 18
6 Brazil 1156 -2 -46
7 Italy 1110 1 51
8 Portugal 1060 -1 -16
9 Argentina 1017 1 4
10 Croatia 1009 -1 -24
11 Chile 959 0 -14
12 Norway 943 0 -29
13 Russia 940 5 26
14 Greece 937 -1 -22
15 Côte d'Ivoire 919 -1 -3
16 France 918 -1 -2
17 Japan 913 -1 -5
18 Sweden 889 1 5
19 Montenegro 874 -2 -41
20 Mexico 864 0 -5
21 Denmark 841 0 -16
22 Australia 834 1 3
23 Slovenia 816 -1 -17
24 Turkey 811 0 -9
25 Paraguay 807 1 3
26 Peru 806 -1 1
26 Slovakia 806 3 27
28 USA 792 2 14
29 Serbia 784 -2 -13
30 Switzerland 758 0 -20
31 Republic of Ireland 754 2 2
32 Israel 747 0 -24
33 Korea Republic 741 -5 -40
34 Egypt 738 0 3
35 Colombia 730 0 23
36 Ghana 726 0 30
37 Belgium 675 0 -16
38 Nigeria 659 5 24
39 Bosnia-Herzegovina 656 2 14
40 Burkina Faso 646 -1 -15
41 Belarus 645 1 9
42 Czech Republic 635 -4 -35
43 Jamaica 623 1 -9
44 Venezuela 615 -4 -33
45 Hungary 613 2 10
46 Algeria 612 6 37
47 South Africa 602 2 5
48 Ukraine 598 -3 -22
49 Senegal 591 -3 -28
50 Honduras 589 1 -3
51 Bulgaria 586 -3 -13
52 Cameroon 582 -2 -13
53 Romania 558 0 -13
54 Iran 556 0 -5
55 Scotland 554 6 41
56 Lithuania 552 2 26
57 Albania 546 2 22
58 Northern Ireland 545 4 47
59 Tunisia 543 -4 -10
60 Costa Rica 531 -4 -1
61 Morocco 529 2 35
62 Panama 525 3 38
63 Georgia 522 -6 -8
64 Libya 504 -1 10
65 Poland 498 4 24
66 Ecuador 491 1 13
67 Gabon 482 -7 -35
68 Austria 472 -2 -7
69 Guinea 465 -1 -10
70 China PR 461 3 25
71 Armenia 456 -1 -6
72 Cape Verde Islands 444 10 47
73 Malawi 436 -1 -3
74 Zimbabwe 434 12 54
75 El Salvador 431 3 30
76 Cyprus 427 4 29
77 Zambia 426 -3 -9
78 Botswana 424 -7 -16
79 Finland 416 -4 -3
80 Uganda 411 -4 -6
81 Mali 408 -4 -8
82 Uzbekistan 399 1 11
83 Benin 394 3 14
84 Latvia 388 -1 0
85 Bolivia 380 -5 -18
86 Estonia 374 -7 -25
87 Saudi Arabia 370 5 17
88 Moldova 364 -3 -19
89 Qatar 362 1 -7
90 FYR Macedonia 358 6 20
91 Trinidad and Tobago 355 -3 -24
92 Jordan 346 -1 -15
93 New Zealand 345 1 0
94 Angola 338 6 9
95 Niger 336 3 5
95 Syria 336 9 12
97 Kuwait 333 -2 -6
98 Sudan 329 -1 -4
99 Cuba 327 0 -3
99 Mozambique 327 4 0
101 Bahrain 324 -1 -5
102 Canada 319 3 5
103 Central African Republic 309 -14 -61
104 Antigua and Barbuda 308 2 0
105 Gambia 306 -5 -23
106 Oman 303 1 -3
107 Sierra Leone 302 -14 -46
108 United Arab Emirates 297 1 -3
109 Iraq 291 -1 -12
110 Suriname 285 0 -11
111 Faroe Islands 273 1 0
112 Azerbaijan 272 -1 -10
113 Guatemala 261 2 1
114 Guyana 260 0 -9
115 Haiti 259 2 3
115 Korea DPR 259 0 -1
117 Wales 251 -5 -22
118 Grenada 250 2 3
119 Liechtenstein 248 -1 -5
120 Thailand 244 -1 -7
121 Togo 242 2 4
122 St. Kitts and Nevis 239 0 -4
123 Iceland 232 -2 -12
124 Tanzania 228 3 -2
125 Kazakhstan 227 1 -4
126 Liberia 226 -1 -6
127 Congo DR 222 -4 -16
128 Luxembourg 211 0 -2
129 Singapore 207 2 8
129 Vietnam 207 15 44
131 Indonesia 205 6 22
132 Congo 201 -3 -5
133 Dominican Republic 198 -1 0
133 Kenya 198 -3 -6
133 Yemen 198 2 10
136 Dominica 193 -3 0
137 Rwanda 192 -3 2
138 Nepal 191 -2 7
139 Ethiopia 182 0 12
140 Bangladesh 181 7 33
141 Turkmenistan 179 -3 3
142 Namibia 169 -2 1
143 Puerto Rico 167 -2 0
144 Burundi 164 -1 0
145 Malaysia 157 1 2
146 Barbados 148 -1 -8
147 Belize 146 1 0
148 US Virgin Islands 144 1 0
149 Guinea-Bissau 142 2 0
150 Bahamas 141 2 0
151 Madagascar 140 -2 -4
152 Chad 131 6 4
152 Equatorial Guinea 131 3 0
152 Tajikistan 131 -10 -35
155 Hong Kong 130 -1 -3
156 Fiji 129 0 0
157 Lebanon 116 2 -3
158 Palestine 115 8 19
159 St. Vincent and the Grenadines 112 2 0
160 India 109 -7 -26
161 Maldives 105 -1 -10
161 Mongolia 105 2 0
161 Philippines 105 1 -3
161 Vanuatu 105 8 12
165 New Caledonia 104 -1 0
166 Curacao 103 -9 -25
166 Malta 103 7 20
168 Myanmar 99 -3 0
169 Chinese Taipei 96 -3 0
170 Aruba 92 -2 -3
171 Pakistan 91 0 0
172 Cayman Islands 90 0 0
172 Swaziland 90 -3 -3
174 Sri Lanka 85 2 6
175 Cambodia 82 -1 1
176 Kyrgyzstan 79 3 7
176 Solomon Islands 79 5 9
178 Nicaragua 75 -1 0
179 Afghanistan 70 0 -2
179 Laos 70 -2 -5
181 Comoros 68 -6 -12
181 Seychelles 68 18 61
183 Tahiti 57 -1 0
184 St. Lucia 54 -1 0
185 Lesotho 41 -1 -3
186 Bermuda 40 -1 0
187 British Virgin Islands 38 -1 0
188 Mauritius 33 7 23
189 Eritrea 29 -1 0
190 Mauritania 27 -3 -5
191 Samoa 26 -2 0
192 Macau 25 -2 0
193 Somalia 23 -2 0
194 Tonga 15 -2 0
195 Turks and Caicos Islands 13 -2 0
196 Djibouti 12 -2 0
197 Cook Islands 10 -2 0
197 Guam 10 -2 0
199 Brunei Darussalam 9 -1 0
200 Anguilla 7 -1 0
201 Bhutan 6 0 0
202 Timor-Leste 3 0 0
203 American Samoa 0 0 0
203 Andorra 0 0 0
203 Montserrat 0 0 0
203 San Marino 0 0 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.

EURO 2012: Final draw coefficients (12 August 2011)

Next update: 9 September 2011

The coefficients for the EURO 2012 final draw will take into account results from:

EURO 2008 (qualifiers and final tournament) - 20% of total weighting
2010 World Cup (qualifiers and final tournament) - 40% of total weighting
EURO 2012 (qualifiers) - 40% of total weighting

Click here for more info on the coefficient system.

Hosts Poland (23806) and Ukraine (28029) will be seeded for the final draw, along with 2008 winners, Spain, if they qualify.

Only one match since the last update: Northern Ireland - Faroe Islands 4 - 0.

Rank - Previous rank - Team - Total points

1  1 Spain              38366
 2  2 Netherlands        36999
 3  3 Germany            36686
 4  4 Italy              30257
 5  5 England            29963
 6  6 Russia             29051
 7  7 Croatia            29043
 8  8 Greece             28375
 9  9 Portugal           28077
10 10 Sweden             27955
11 11 France             27228
12 12 Denmark            26554
13 13 Slovakia           26334
14 14 Czech Republic     25956
15 15 Israel             25762
16 16 Serbia             25135
17 17 Ireland            24943
18 18 Turkey             24801
19 19 Switzerland        24695
20 20 Slovenia           24463
21 21 Norway             24068
22 22 Hungary            23250
23 28 Northern Ireland   23119
24 23 Finland            23073
25 24 Bosnia-Herzegovina 23038
26 25 Romania            22528
27 26 Bulgaria           22339
28 27 Belarus            22298
29 29 Montenegro         21344
30 30 Austria            21266
31 31 Scotland           20926
32 32 Belgium            20918
33 33 Latvia             20365
34 34 Lithuania          19306
35 35 Albania            17604
36 36 Macedonia          17224
37 37 Wales              17057
38 38 Cyprus             16761
39 39 Estonia            16654
40 40 Georgia            16202
41 41 Armenia            15966
42 42 Moldova            15262
43 43 Kazakhstan         14338
44 44 Iceland            13892
45 45 Azerbaijan         13390
46 46 Liechtenstein      12680
47 47 Faroe Islands      12235
48 48 Luxembourg         12065
49 49 Malta              10319
50 50 Andorra             8707
51 51 San Marino          7962

If the teams with the best coefficient qualify the final draw pot would look like this:

Pot 1: Poland, Ukraine, Spain, Netherlands
Pot 2: Germany, Italy, England, Russia
Pot 3: Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Sweden
Pot 4: France, Denmark, Slovakia, Czech Republic

No changes from last update.

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.

EURO 2016 qualifying draw seeding (12 August 2011)

Next update: 9 September 2011 

The coefficients for the EURO 2016 qualifying draw will take into account results from:

2010 World Cup (qualifiers and final tournament) - 20% of total weighting
EURO 2012 (qualifiers and final tournament) - 40% of total weighting
2014 World Cup (qualifiers) - 40% of total weighting

Click here for more info on the coefficient system.

The qualifying format is already known: 9 groups (2 x 5, 7 x 6)

Top two from each group and the best team in third place advance. The other eight play-off for the final four spots.

Only one match since the last update: Northern Ireland - Faroe Islands 4 - 0.

Liechtenstein replace Faroe Islands in the fifth pot.

Rank - Previous Rank - Team - Points

1  1 Netherlands        25755
 2  2 Spain              25525
 3  3 Germany            24627
 4  4 Italy              21455
 5  5 England            20264
 6  6 Sweden             20148
 7  7 Greece             19554
 8  8 Russia             19309
 9  9 Croatia            18961
------------------------------
10 10 Slovakia           18906
11 11 Portugal           18524
12 12 Ireland            18226
13 13 Denmark            18152
14 14 Ukraine            17951
15 15 Israel             16815
16 16 Montenegro         16671
17 17 Czech Republic     16631
18 18 Norway             16606
------------------------------
19 19 Slovenia           16523
20 20 Hungary            16221
21 21 Bosnia-Herzegovina 16151
22 22 Turkey             15764
23 23 Belarus            15622
24 24 Serbia             15524
25 27 Northern Ireland   15174
26 25 Belgium            14360
27 26 Switzerland        14201
------------------------------
28 28 Romania            13741
29 29 Finland            13601
30 30 Austria            13458
31 31 Poland             12751
32 32 Bulgaria           12681
33 33 Albania            12597
34 34 Scotland           12388
35 35 Armenia            12074
36 36 Latvia             11964
------------------------------
37 37 Georgia            11623
38 38 Lithuania          11390
39 39 Estonia            11336
40 40 Moldova            10414
41 41 Macedonia          10242
42 42 Cyprus              9631
43 43 Kazakhstan          8587
44 45 Azerbaijan          8467
45 46 Liechtenstein       8310
------------------------------
46 44 Faroe Islands       8225
47 47 Wales               8020
48 48 Iceland             7735
49 49 Luxembourg          7019
50 50 Malta               5573
51 51 Andorra             5240
52 52 San Marino          4597

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.