And Italy, Portugal, Croatia and France, all of whom might reasonably be argued to be better than Fabio Capello’s men.
England have barely improved from last year’s World Cup, where they were thrashed by Germany, equal to the US and not much better than Algeria or Slovenia. Since they have had an impressive win over Switzerland away but drawn at home to the same opponents. Comfortable wins over Bulgaria and Wales are all we have to show for the changes made since South Africa. Defeat to France last November was a stark reminder of our true level in world football.
How did it come to this? The answer is that FIFA rankings rely on a bizzare combination of statistics relating to a team’s results. The better the team you play, the more points you get. And of course the quality of the team you play is determined by, you guessed it, the FIFA rankings. So a 2-1 win over England counts for more than a 2-1 win over Argentina. It’s also apparently easier to beat Cameroon than Jamaica.
In this case Brazil and Argentina seem to have suffered for not having played recently, with top European sides overtaking the South American giants with easy wins against European minnows.
All of which combines to demonstrate the simple fact that the rankings barely reflect current football reality. The top three is fairly accurate; the best three from last year’s World Cup – Spain, Holland and Germany. But then England, who had an awful World Cup, followed by Brazil and Italy, who also had an awful tournament. Italy in fact, were even worse than England, finishing bottom of a group featuring New Zealand.
Yet France’s 15 ranking is a fair reflection of their poor display last summer, but they have improved vastly since and are undoubtedly a better team than England at this moment in time.
Mexico, having won the Gold Cup, have jumped up the rankings to ninth, which is a fair reflection of their particular level at this moment, but that Argentina are only tenth is fairly baffling.
The best team in Africa is apparently the Ivory Coast, not Ghana or Egypt. Both have better recent records in international tournaments. A look down the list though makes for increasingly strange results. Burkina Faso are better than the Ukraine, according to FIFA.
It’s time to get rid of this ludicrous arbitrary and inaccurate ranking. These are used to determine seedings for major international competitions which is nonsensical given the disparity between the rankings and the real difference between those being ranked. Time has come for a proper ranking system.
