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England up to 3rd in FIFA World Rankings


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England have risen to their best ever position in the Fifa world rankings.

Roy Hodgson's side have moved to third above Uruguay, whose 2011 Copa America victory has lost value in Fifa's system used to determine rankings.

Wales moved up one place into 37th, Scotland arrested their slide from the last rankings to reach 46th, while Northern Ireland went up one to 101st.

The Republic of Ireland, who lost all three group matches at Euro 2012, stayed in 26th.

England progressed to the knockout stage of Euro 2012 after they topped their group, but were unable to end their 16-year wait to reach the last four of a major competition as they lost on penalties to Italy at the quarter-final stage.

The Fifa world rankings are compiled every month, with ranking points accumulated according to results, the importance of the matches played and the strength of opposing teams.

World and European champions Spain have retained a comfortable lead at the top ahead of Euro 2012 semi-finalists Germany.

Five-times world champions Brazil, who do not have to qualify for the 2014 World Cup as hosts, continued their fall and have reached a record low of 13th.

The decline is due to the fact that they have played less top-level matches in 2012 than some of the other leading nations, and despite reaching the final at London 2012, their ranking will not receive a major boost in September as the Olympics is not a points-scoring competition.

BBC Sport

FIFA World Rankings - Top 20:

1. Spain

2. Germany

3. England

4. Uruguay

5. Portugal

6. Italy

7. Argentina

8. Netherlands

9. Croatia

10. Denmark

11. Russia

12. Greece

13. Brazil

14. France

15. Chile

16. Ivory Coast

17. Sweden

18. Mexico

19. Czech Republic

20. Ecuador

Selected others

26. Republic of Ireland

37. Wales

46. Scotland

101. Northern Ireland

FIFA World Rankings

Our highest ever position :D

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12. Greece

13. Brazil

woohoo!!!!!

demonstrates what a joke the rankings are. how are we better than brazil?

also russia are above us and finished above them in the euros group! its completely laughable

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It says in the OP. The Copa America results have dropped out so countries with those have lost out.

People being 'surprised' by how the FIFA rankings work is really starting to piss me off now. We all know they dont say who the best teams in the world are, they say who has collected the most ranking points over a given time are. Collecting a lot of ranking points does not necessarily make you a better team than somebody who hasnt has the opportunity to collect many at all.

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It says in the OP. The Copa America results have dropped out so countries with those have lost out.

People being 'surprised' by how the FIFA rankings work is really starting to piss me off now. We all know they dont say who the best teams in the world are, they say who has collected the most ranking points over a given time are. Collecting a lot of ranking points does not necessarily make you a better team than somebody who hasnt has the opportunity to collect many at all.

Quite.

It's a mathematical system that rewards consistency of results over a given time period with greater weight given to results in competitive matches.

Obviously FIFA is going to want a rankings system of some sort. Anyone got a better suggestion of how to do it?

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Obviously FIFA is going to want a rankings system of some sort. Anyone got a better suggestion of how to do it?

The ELO ratings are probably more accurate. They take into consideration who beats who and adds weight to the results accordingly. They are also updated monthly and the current list is like this:

01] Spain (1)

02] Germany (2)

03] Brazil (13)

04] Uruguay (4)

05] England (3)

06] Netherlands (8)

07] Argentina (7)

08] Portugal (5)

09] Chile (15)

10] Italy (6)

FIFA rankings in brackets, the ELO rankings listed are from July 2012 so should be updated any day now.

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Obviously FIFA is going to want a rankings system of some sort. Anyone got a better suggestion of how to do it?

The ELO ratings are probably more accurate. They take into consideration who beats who and adds weight to the results accordingly. They are also updated monthly and the current list is like this

Probably a bit better, but still hardly perfect. The mighty Panama above Belgium, Ghana, Serbia and Poland?

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I havent seen any of them play of late so I couldnt comment. Belgium are a classic example of a side with a load of great players seemingly incapable of making a great team though, lots of people think they are better than they actually are just because of the star names in the squad.

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I havent seen any of them play of late so I couldnt comment. Belgium are a classic example of a side with a load of great players seemingly incapable of making a great team though, lots of people think they are better than they actually are just because of the star names in the squad.

Agreed, but as a rule it'll be the same people picking the teams with the star names whining about the FIFA rankings without paying any attention to the fact that it's calculated on results and not just made up on the spot.

The casual observer will always complain - they want the teams with all the good players people have heard of at the top "because they must be the best" (France, Portugal, Brazil, Argentina) and then whinge when the teams that don't actually lose many matches (England, Uruguay Denmark) end up near the top.

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