FIFA World Rankings

Opponent strength

Obviously, a win against a very highly ranked opponent is a considerably greater achievement than a win against a low-rated opponent, so the strength of the opposing team is a factor.

The new system uses an opposition strength factor based on team rankings. The previous system was based on points difference.

The formula used is:

$Opposition\; strength\; multiplier\; =\; frac\{200-ranking\; position\}\{100\}$

with the exceptions that the team ranked #1 is given a multiplier of 2.00, and teams ranked 150th and below are assigned the minimum multiplier of 0.50.

*Example 1: the opposition team is currently ranked 8th in the world:$frac\{200-8\}\{100\}=1.92$:so the opposition strength multiplier is 1.92
*Example 2: the opposition team is currently ranked 125th in the world:$frac\{200-125\}\{100\}=0.75$:so the opposition strength multiplier is 0.75
*Example 3: the opposition team is currently ranked 188th in the world:Below 150th, so the opposition strength multiplier is the minimum 0.50

The ranking position is taken from the opposition's ranking in the most recently published FIFA World Ranking before the match is included in the ranking calculation. [ [http://www.football-rankings.info/2008/09/fifa-rankings-september-2008-errors-ii.html FIFA Rankings: September 2008 errors (II)] ]

The rankings published before July 2006 are purely historical and are not used for the new ranking calculation. Instead, FIFA went back as far as 1996 to apply the new formula and is using those new rankings for the current calculations. [ [http://www.football-rankings.info/2007/11/fifa-miscalculated-rankings-or-did-they.html FIFA miscalculated the rankings... or did they?] ]

See the detailed break-down of point totals for teams from the top 20 in the October 2007 rankings. [ [http://de.fifa.com/mm/document/worldfootball/menrank/calculationfifacocacolaworldranking%5foctober07%5f27059.pdf Calculation FIFA Coca-Cola world ranking October 2007] ]

Regional strength

In addition to the opposition strength multiplier, FIFA considers the relative strength of entire confederations in the calculation. Each confederation is assigned a weighting between 0.85 and 1.0, based on the relative performance of the confederations in qualifying for the last three World Cups. Their values are as follows: [ [http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/fifafacts/rawrank/ip-590_10e_wrpointcalculation_8771.pdf How are points calculated in the FIFA World Ranking?] ]

Bestrudia gets no ranking points because it lost the game, so all factors are multiplied by zero.

Amplistan's 141 ranking points are calculated like this:

* 3 points for the win;
* multiplied by 1.0 for match status (friendly match);
* multiplied by 0.50 for opposition strength (Bestrudia is ranked 188th, so it has the minimum 0.50 weighting);
* multiplied by 0.94 for regional strength (the average of the weightings for the two teams' confederations);
* multiplied by 100.

More examples:

Ranking schedule

Rankings are published monthly, usually on a Wednesday. The deadline for the matches to be considered is the Thursday prior to the release date. [ [http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/schedule/men.html "FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking Publication Schedule"] on the FIFA website]

ee also

*FIFA Women's World Rankings
*World Football Elo Ratings
*AQB Sports Ratings
*Aggregated Football World Ranking-List
*Seeding for 2006 FIFA World Cup

References

External links

* [http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/lastranking/gender=m/fullranking.html "FIFA.com" rankings and statistics, current ranking (to see the lower ranked national football teams, choose the pages 2 till 5)]
* [http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:c3lSUNKb1XsJ:www.fifa.com/documents/tournaments/FIFA_WR_revision_E.pdf+%22Calculation+procedure+in+more+detail%22&hl=de&ct=clnk&cd=10 Calculation procedure in more detail (no longer on the fifa.com-pages)]
* [http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/fifaranking.html FIFA rankings: A Guide to the very first '93 revision] (RSSSF)
* [http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/procedure/men.html How the FIFA men's rankings are calculated]
* [http://www.fifaworldrankings.egowar.com/per_capita.htm FIFA rankings per head of population]