FIFA World Rankings November 2008

November 12th, 2008 | by: Daryl |

Not everybody agrees with the FIFA World Rankings. According to our poll, 64% of World Cup Blog readers prefer the World Football Elo Ratings System. But whether you agree with FIFA or not, the rankings matter. For example, they’re used to determine the seedings system when qualifying groups are drawn.

The November numbers came out today, and for once you can see the immediate effect of recent results. That’s right, the November rankings actually make sense:

Euro 2008 champs Spain won their two two World Cup qualifiers in October, so they remain top. Euro 2008 chumps England rejoined the top 10 (joint 1th but still) after Fabio Capello showed them how it’s done. Germany also won both their games, while Italy dropped two points to Bulgaria. So the Euro 2008 runners up jump over the World Cup holders. Brazil dropped points last month, so they slip a place to fifth. See? It all makes sense this month.

Other movers and shakers: Switzerland rose 18 places to 27th and Jamaica jumped 33 places to 83rd with wins over Mexico and Honduras.

And great news for East Timor, who finally avoided defeat last month with a 2-2 draw against Cambodia. That achievement lifts them away from the pack of joint 201st bottom dwellers with zero ranking points and into 198th place.

Top 20 below:

1. (1) Spain
2. (3) Germany
3. (2) Italy
4. (5) Netherlands
5. (4) Brazil
6. (7) Argentina
7. (6) Croatia
8. (9) Russia
9. (8) Czech Republic
10= (10) Portugal
10= (14) England
12. (11) France
13. (13) Turkey
14. (12) Cameroon
15. (16) Israel
16. (15) Bulgaria
17. (22) Paraguay
18. (17) Greece
19. (18) Romania
20. (19) Ukraine

Full rankings here.

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Taylor

15. (16) Israel
16. (15) Bulgaria
17. (22) Paraguay
20. (19) Ukraine

Huh? No Ghana? No Nigeria?
http://www.worldcupblog.org Daryl

Yep. Ghana are 26th and Nigeria 22nd.
http://epl.theoffside.com Rob

Yay! We’re as good as Portugal. Next stop, losing to them on Penalties!
Taylor

Right, but not in the top 20, I dunno about that… pretty sure if you have a group of Ghana, Israel, Bulgaria, and Ukraine, Ghana are gonna advance.
Nolan

I’m glad Paraguay broke the top 20 – they are dominating South American qualifying after all.
Shazback

Taylor, I think you’d be surprised at how… Erm… Ghana is -not- a powerhouse.

Look at their 9 games since the African Cup of Nations 2008 : 4 defeats (Mexico 2-1, Australia 1-0, Gabon 2-0, Libya 1-0), 1 draw (Tanzania 1-1), 4 wins (Libya 3-0, Lesotho 3-2, Gabon 2-0, Lesotho 3-0)…

If Portugal lost almost half their games and only beat the African equivalent of Liechtenstein (sorry, Lesotho, but FIFA and ELO agree that Liechtenstein is better than you) for half those wins, would you put them in the top 20?

Nigeria would have been a better team to argue should be in the top 20, but their results against non-african opposition since 2005 is pretty clear : 1-1 draw with Austria, 1-0 win against Switzerland, 0-1 defeat against Australia, 2-2 draw with Mexico, 0-0 draw with Macedonia, 0-3 defeat against Romania…
Mo

Israel?
Taylor

Shazback… I can only assume that your usage of facts and statistics is a cover for your dislike of African countries… just kidding… good argument… I just have a man-crush on Appiah… perhaps my bias got the better of me… can I still make fun of Bulgaria? Especially since they have an obese man running up top…
Michael

Germany should be number 1.
7 world cup grand finals (3 world cup wins) and 3 european titles says it all.
They have also been the most consistent in the last few months.

World cup winner 2010 will be Germany.
RobinHood

Scotland deserves much better than 33. Heck we almost qualified over both France and Italy in the same group. (But for a blind Spanish ref.) Brazil is way over-ranked right now.