What counts towards the ranking?
The results of all matches at “A” international level are taken into account by the Worid Ranking. These matches include:
• FIFA World Cup™ final competition matches
• FIFA World Cup™ qualifying competition matches
• Continental championship final competition matches
• Continental championship qualifying competition matches
• Friendly matches
Ranking points are calculated on the basis of the following criteria.
• Points for a win, draw or defeat
• Type of competition (multiplication factor)
• Strength of opponents (multiplication factor)
• Strength of confederation in question (multiplication factor)
To ensure that the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking reflects the reality of world football, the results a team has recorded in the previous twelve months are the most important. Results from previous years are also taken into account, but their value decreases on an annual basis until four years after the match was played (100% of ranking points for matches in last twelve months, 50% for matches played 12-24 months previously, 30% for 24-36 months and 20% for 36-48 months) at which point the result no longer has any impact on the ranking.
Man’s Football Ranking
Spain reign supreme, Italy back in second
The latest edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking is once again dominated by Spain, who continue to hold on to top spot with a comfortable cushion of more than 200 points. Their nearest challengers are once again world champions Italy (2nd, up 1), who have swapped places with Germany (3rd, down 1), although the Netherlands (4*, no change) are also within touching distance of the Italians and the Germans. The line-up at the top could change dramatically over the next few weeks, however, with the European World Cup qualifiers due to take centre
stage now that more than 300 of the 850+ qualifiers have already been played in the other confederations. Europe’s total
of 268 matches will account for more than 30% of the games in the entire preliminary competition for 2010.
Positions four to nine remain unchanged, although Turkey (10′-\ up 3) have climbed back into the top ten. After an absence of just one month, Saudi Arabia (48″, up 4) are back in the top 50. The major movers in the upper reaches, however, are Mexico (24|h|), whose climb of eight places sees them
overtake the USA <28:n, up 3) as the highest CONCACAF team. Further down, a number of teams have made considerable progress since last month, including Gabon (62nd, up 12), Algeria (76th, up 14), Trinidad and To¬bago (80th, up 12) and New Caledonia (95th, up 21), the latter having benefit¬ed from a devaluation of past results to once again replace New Zealand (111!hl, no change) as the highest Oceanian rep¬resentatives, just as they did exactly one year ago.
Women’s Football Ranking
World champions losing ground
USA lead, with Brazil challenging for second
As the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking shows, the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament had two winners-the finalists. Three-time Olympic champions the USA stay top of the ranking despite their costly defeat to Norway in their opening match, while Brazil, who gained the most points, climb one place (3rd, up 1) at the expense of Sweden (4th,
down 1), who were previously ranked below Marta, Cristiane and co. a year ago. Brazil are now threatening to leapfrog world champions Germany, who are ranked almost 60 points behind the USA – the largest-ever gap between the two long-term leaders. Australia are among those to make a slide down the latest ranking, falling two places (14th, down 2) as their victories in friendly matches were not enough to compensate for defeats to Japan and Korea DPR in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup. By contrast, Turkey (64th, up 6) and Kazakhstan (59th, up 4) are among the biggest climbers.