FIFA RANKINGS ARE WORTHLESS v2

Written by: tyler ransburgh

I wrote a post last Thursday (and by wrote I mean a late night rant) about the FIFA World Rankings and specifically Mexico’s jump over the United States.

The story found its way onto the Big Soccer Forums and even got a response article from Edgar of Lucruri Neinteresante. In true internet-tough-guy fashion, the Big Soccer Forum post was a continual reminder that most people just like to argue without putting any substance in the argument.

Edgar’s post on the other hand provided a large amount of data that I assume he calculated on his own time which should be applauded. His work showed that Mexico’s “score” had improved over the last month. I am yet to get a response from Edgar himself on what equation he is using and where he got it. A moderator on the Big Soccer forums did provide a link to the official FIFA ranking criteria (below).

I am not saying that Edgar used the above numbers as a base. I have no idea what he used. But his effort should be applauded regardless.

In the end all of this discussion and number crunching still wont sway my opinion that the FIFA Rankings are wrong. Most people say who cares about the rankings, but they do hold true power.

FIFA uses the world rankings to seed Pot A of the World Cup (the top 8 teams). This was controversial in 2006 because Mexico (who would have guessed) was awarded a top 8 seed over the Netherlands and the United States which won CONCACAF. The other criteria is the past 2 World Cups. ( I don’t want to hear the whining of internet tough guys on this, I don’t care that Mexico actually got in, it is history)

The ultimate point is these rankings have a large amount of sway in where you are seeded for both the World Cup and World Cup Qualifiers. So FIFA World Rankings do matter.