July 2009 FIFA World Rankings

July 1st, 2009 | by: chris |

Apparently FIFA was unimpressed with the footballing performances of the Confederations Cup. If not, how would you explain June’s World Rankings? Brazil knocked Spain off the top spot – as much was to be expected as Brazil have quietly been by far the best team in the world for a few months now – but no one else impressed. The United States made a 2 spot leap to #12 for their Cinderella run, but then Greece made a 6 spot leap to #11 for doing precisely, err, nothing.

The same happened to South Africa, who only jumped two points, while Italy lost absolutely nothing. Which would lead one to believe that the committee looked at the Confederations Cup as an independent set of games, rather than one whole tournament. Perhaps falling in line with the theory that the Confederations Cup games really are meaningless.

Or maybe FIFA’s rankings are just rubbish.

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Tags: Brazil, FIFA July World Rankings, Spain, United States, World Football

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Comments

By sandrahn | July 1st, 2009 at 11:45 am

“but then Greece made a 6 spot leap to #11 for doing precisely, err, nothing.”

Did they have any recent qualifiers or friendlies that affected their ranking? These rankings change as a result of performances in qualifiers, friendlies as well as competitive matches.

The rankings aren’t great but they’re better than what existed before. The previous system has Brazil as #1 at the start of the 2006 wc just because they’d won the 2002 wc — it did not reflect Brazil’s performances during the 4 year interim. Now a country’s ranking moves according to the results of each game a national team plays.

I agree it’s not flawless but does anyone have an alternative system? I ask that seriously, I don’t know.

Posted from United States

By Toby | July 1st, 2009 at 12:16 pm

What did England do to lose 60 points? Other than still be one of the only teams to have a 100% winning ratio in World Cup Qualifying?

Bizzare.

Posted from United Kingdom

By dweezler | July 1st, 2009 at 1:00 pm

I can’t believe Greece jumped up 6 spots putting them in front of the U.S. U.S. should be ranked 10th and Greece should have that 12 spot, if they even deserve that. Ridiculous.

Posted from United States

By Daryl | July 1st, 2009 at 1:06 pm

It’s a mistake to think of the rankings as only being affected by what’s happened in the previous month. The points total comes from the last four years, so any points lost can be attributed to points that no longer fall in that four year window.

By utku | July 1st, 2009 at 1:07 pm

turkey went down 16 spots by losing 1-0 in a friendly…

By Al | July 1st, 2009 at 1:10 pm

Mexico is behind Gabon.

Gabon.

Posted from United States

By OhYes | July 1st, 2009 at 1:56 pm

Who’s Gabon?

By Liss Evil Blue | July 1st, 2009 at 1:58 pm

Italy at # 5 hurts my eyes. wtf did they did to be there. Germany should be 3 tanx to the junior Under something trophy’s. ant the Netherlands wtf i got nothun against them but 3, really?

By tom | July 1st, 2009 at 2:57 pm

i know these are meaningless but that did not stop me from mailing it to my mexican colleagues and reminding them that Northern Ireland and Gabon are among others as better soccer nations in the world governing body’s eyes than el tri

By Seth | July 1st, 2009 at 3:24 pm

Yeat wtf @ Italy 0___0

I don’t see why Germany and England lost points while lackluster Italy has not changed. Especially considering the fact that England have been really impressive as of late.

Worst.rankings.ever.

By Kevin | July 1st, 2009 at 3:57 pm

So the U.S. beats Spain, the football giant of the world, by 2 to 0. Then they go on to take Brazil, the current world #1, all the way in a highly competitive match, losing out 3 to 2 in the final minutes.

U.S. ranked 12? Absolute garbage. When recently have we lost bad enough to counteract our Confederations Cup performance? The fact that the U.S. isn’t top 10 shows that the top dogs at FIFA will not take the U.S. seriously until we take a few more of their favorites down a notch.

All I have to say is I hope the U.S. brings it hard next summer so I can see the look on every one else’s faces when they do.

Good luck boys!

By aj | July 1st, 2009 at 4:20 pm

Kevin, I disagree. That’s the way rankings work. You must have sustained good performance. Last year, when Tottenham were in 20th place in the Prem and beat Liverpool, they did not deserve to jump ahead of liverpool in the rankings. Obviously the point systems are different between the prem and fifa rankings, but similarly, the U.S.A. do not automatically deserve to be ranked higher than Spain because they beat them, or, in my opinion, higher than any other top 10 team. Though, I don’t understand why greece or switzerland are ranked so well.

sandrahn, Wikipedia says, “Alternative systems have been devised, such as the World Football Elo Ratings, based on the Elo rating system used in chess, ranking teams on an all time basis. The UFWC (Unofficial Football World Championships) ranks teams on the number of times they have defended the Unofficial Football World Championship, an award devised solely for that purpose.” You can find these rankings here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Football_Elo_Ratings

Posted from United States

By aj | July 1st, 2009 at 4:40 pm

chris, according to wikipedia, confederations cup matches count the same as continental tournaments for the FIFA rankings.

Posted from United States

By Mark | July 1st, 2009 at 7:54 pm

The reason is because the results of June 2005 no longer count…….Confederations Cup does matter. FIFA Rankings are bull anyway

By adas | July 1st, 2009 at 7:56 pm

The FIFA rankings are an awful lot like the BCS bowl standings. The United States could win a World Cup and they would never be ranked first. Yet, Brazil wins the confed cup and go to #1. Is a Confed Cup game really more significant than a Euro final from last year? And how does Italy stay exactly where they were last month? Egypt beat them barely, still shouldn’t have happened. And Brazil opened up a can of whoop on them. Yet, Italians are so good that they get credit for losing, ’cause apparantly they do it with style.

By kim minai eric[ kenya] | July 2nd, 2009 at 12:28 am

bbbbrrrraaaazzzzziiiillll gooooooooo ””””
i love this contry ,,,if God consulted us where he wants us to b born,,then brazil wuld have been the better option.

KENYA,,,WHERE U AT?????

Posted from Kenya

By Johnny | July 2nd, 2009 at 10:05 am

Italy still ranked #4? This is getting ridiculous. Italy struggles against a 10-man US squad, loses to Egypt, and gets manhandled by Brazil, but they don’t drop at all? Italy should maybe make the top ten. But top five? No way! They’ve been overrated from the start!

And Greece jumping to #11, and above the US, makes no sense to me at all. As far as I know, their last game was against Israel back in April. They won, barely, but it was against Israel so how is that impressive? Meanwhile, the US pulls off a win against Spain and manages to give Brazil a close game. I’m not saying US is top ten, but they are certainly better than Greece!

Posted from United States

By Daryl | July 2nd, 2009 at 11:19 am

Laurie wrote an excellent post explaining exactly how the FIFA Rankings are calculated almost exactly a year ago:
http://www.worldcupblog.org/world-football/so-where-do-those-fifa-rankings-come-from-anyway.html

And we also did a comparison: FIFA Rankings vs Elo Rankings in September 2008:
http://www.worldcupblog.org/world-football/fifa-world-rankings-or-world-football-elo-ratings-which-is-better.html

By m | July 3rd, 2009 at 9:36 am

bosnia has to be in the top 30

By D.S | July 4th, 2009 at 8:02 am

WTH!!!! although Egypt lost to the U.S they played amazing there first to games and are ranked 38 what kind of crap is that

Posted from United States

By Andrew | July 11th, 2009 at 3:57 pm

i cant freakin believe dat Mexico is 33 on the raking
Mexico needs to step up there game if they want to beat U.S.A.
Mexico is gettin real lazy right now also. Can´t believe that Gabon is ahead of them, thats BS!!!

By hdz501 | July 12th, 2009 at 9:21 pm

man what happened to el tri…they were like at a world class level..i REALLY hope they step there game up and beat the usa n qualify to the world cup..no disrespect to the usa team

Posted from United States

By sham | July 13th, 2009 at 9:23 am

Egypt Fifa African champs 2006 and 2008 back to back. beat camron twice in the same tornment and beat world champions Italy 1-0 yet they are not even in the top 30. I agree they had a terriable match against USA but that shouldnt take away all they have done in the past 3 years because of one game. Egypt WILL be in the world cup and they will be the black horse. Watch out

Posted from United States

By sham | July 13th, 2009 at 9:26 am

oh one more thing why the hell is israel ranked 25th…What in the world have they ever done in soccer??? someone please replay and tell me if I’m mistaken

Posted from United States

By male | July 26th, 2009 at 5:06 am

It’s satisfying to see the masters of the “beauiful game” coming back to their well-deserved place in the world ranking: BRAZIL IS A GREAT HONOUR TO PELE AND THE “JOGO BONITO”!
However Fifa should think of the comments and criticisms made on this site.

Comments are closed