Are FIFA rankings completely worthless?

[Adi Shankara]

I'm reading them, and I see Ghana is 23 while Greece is 12, which is completely bullshit.

[Aesop]

Not totally useless, but neverthe less not the most accurate.

I believe they rank the countries due to how hard their competition they compete in is, so the euro cup is seen much more difficult than the african nations cup. So for example, european teams will get higher rankings even if they do worse at a world cup than other teams out of europe, due to the euro competition.

[Andropov]

No not really, in fact they are quite accurate and the best indicator out there to the strenght of the National Football teams.

[Aesop]

No not really, in fact they are quite accurate and the best indicator out there to the strenght of the National Football teams.

With England as number ranked as 7th. Mind they only made it to the last 16 of the world cup and did not qualify for euro 2008.

[Devrim]

No not really, in fact they are quite accurate and the best indicator out there to the strenght of the National Football teams.

Do I detect a hint of sarcasm there? I actually think they are not that bad.


I'm reading them, and I see Ghana is 23 while Greece is 12, which is completely bullshit.

Why 'completely bullshit'? I think the rankings are based on matched over the last eight years. Greece won a European Championship six years ago, which is why I presume they are so high. What have Ghana won in that time?

Devrim

[Andropov]

Do I detect a hint of sarcasm there? I actually think they are not that bad.
Believe it or not I was actually being genuine.
They are obviously not the perfect science but are a good indicator of the standard of a nations football team.
Much like the co-efficients of leagues in Europe.

[I.Drink.Your.Milkshake]

Theyre pretty pointless. Nobody really cares about them, do they? Especially given that they take in results from the last 8 (eight!!!) years!!! Eight years ago Leeds United were genuine Champions League contenders.

You never remember who the number 1 ranked team is, or where your nation is ranked - you remember the games; who won the world cup, and where did your lot come etc. You never think to yourself "well if we win this we could be up to 5th".

England, lest we forget, actually climbed the rankings after the world cup!

load o' shite.

[Devrim]

You never remember who the number 1 ranked team is, or where your nation is ranked - you remember the games; who won the world cup, and where did your lot come etc. You never think to yourself "well if we win this we could be up to 5th".

Yes, I don't think it is important in that way. There is some importance in it though. It determines the seeding groups, and I can remember hearing international managers, who had no hope of qualifying saying that it was important to win European qualification group matches to get them up into the next seeding pool.

I don't really care about international football, but the UEFA coefficient is hugely important to the big clubs as it determines places for European competitions.

When Germany moved above Italy, a couple of years ago to get four not three Champions League places, it was reasonably big news.

Devrim

[Tifosi]

I don't really care about international football, but the UEFA coefficient is hugely important to the big clubs as it determines places for European competitions.

When Germany moved above Italy, a couple of years ago to get four not three Champions League places, it was reasonably big news.

Devrim

On that subject, I think it's only a matter of time before Ligue 1 move above Seria A in the UEFA league rankings. Although it won't matter to much for the top teams in each league seeing both leagues will both get three teams into the Champions League.