FIFA World Rankings (1 Viewer)

[Jerry Twig]

I've always thought their system of ranking teams needs a serious revision, but now its just ridiculous. As of April 2006, the US of A are the world's 4th best football team.

And Ireland are 4 places lower than Costa Rica at 30...

..oh wait.

 

[skinnerchinner]

4 of 6 got through from the central america group
that really bugs the shit out of me
2 places should be all they get , mexico and usa
and if one them fuck up costa rica
3 is super generous
really annoys me that

 

[todd_landers]

this is to ensure that the US always qualify, biggest potential market and all, we are nothing as far as FIFA are concerned, sure we bring fans to the matches but as a market, well we are nothing

 

[steve ignorant]

USA the 4th best team in the world! FUCK SAKE!!!!!!
On the plus side, the more ridiculous the table looks the more likely it is that FIFA will have to admit the system is a load of shite.
Does the amount of points you get depend on how the team you beat s ranked? ie 10 pounts for beatin Brasil, and 1 for beatin San Marino?

Did anyone see the documentary on Brasil from 1950 WC to the 70 WC? Was good, never heard of that other fella whose name I have already forgotten, looked good though.

 

[Cormcolash]

Was that Garrincha you're talking about? My Brazilian mate says he's the best Brazilian footballer ever.
The ranking system is more hilarious comedy than anything else. USA are actually a good team and would maybe make top 10, but 4 is ridiculous.
1,2 and 3 would have to be Brazil, Argentina, Mexico in that case, for it to even remotely make sense. England should be like number 9 or something.

 

[Jerry Twig]

I don't think the US are anywhere within the top ten. They are not better than England, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, shit they are not better than us and we are ranked 30.
It's balls.
England are ten.
http://www.soccerphile.com/soccerphile/news/fifa.html

 

[P. Littbarski]

USA are actually a good team and would maybe make top 10, but 4 is ridiculous.
1,2 and 3 would have to be Brazil, Argentina, Mexico in that case, for it to even remotely make sense. England should be like number 9 or something.

agreed. The US have some good players, and they are not as bad as popular belief would have them be. I wouldnt put them too far off the top 10 myself.

Mexico are a class team...they will play anyone, anywhere and always maje a good game of it... I wouldnt want to meet them in the world cup (they have played in 13 WC's which is pretty damn good)

 

[Jerry Twig]

they have played in 13 WC's which is pretty damn good)

not really. so would we with their qualifying campaign, and if we'd hosted the thing twice

 

[P. Littbarski]

not really. so would we with their qualifying campaign, and if we'd hosted the thing twice

so you are saying that 13 world cup appearances is not impressive...i dunno, seems a bit unreasonable to me.

consider that ireland could not qualify for the 1998 WC because we couldn't get the better over Iceland, footballing stalwards Macedonia & Lithuania...we have made it to how many world cups... 4 is it ?
The fact is that mexico still had to win their games (and they play many more than ireland do for qualifying) to get to the world cup and they have consistenly made it. That accounts for something in my eyes...

ok, so they have a bigger population, therefore a bigger pool of players to choose from but this does not always account for footballing success...look at china. out of 1 billion people you'd think that they could get together at least 20 decent players.

ireland players on the other hand have generally played for top european teams (mainly in the english league, but also in the dutch, italian etc) to a higher standard of football than mexico...but we still could not beat iceland...and if you can't beat iceland at home you don't really deserve to make it to the world cup.

 

[Cormcolash]

so you are saying that 13 world cup appearances is not impressive...i dunno, seems a bit unreasonable to me.

consider that ireland could not qualify for the 1998 WC because we couldn't get the better over Iceland, footballing stalwards Macedonia & Lithuania...we have made it to how many world cups... 4 is it ?
The fact is that mexico still had to win their games (and they play many more than ireland do for qualifying) to get to the world cup and they have consistenly made it. That accounts for something in my eyes...

ok, so they have a bigger population, therefore a bigger pool of players to choose from but this does not always account for footballing success...look at china. out of 1 billion people you'd think that they could get together at least 20 decent players.

ireland players on the other hand have generally played for top european teams (mainly in the english league, but also in the dutch, italian etc) to a higher standard of football than mexico...but we still could not beat iceland...and if you can't beat iceland at home you don't really deserve to make it to the world cup.

Damn fuckin straight. When it comes to qualifying fpr any tournament, Ireland are under-acheiving wankers. When it comes to actually playing in the tournament if we make it, they are over-acheiving legends!

 

[Jerry Twig]

i agree with corm on both counts. we've only actually qualified for 3 WCs, not 4.

P. - it's very simple. Taking into account your Icelands and your Lithuania, look at the qualifiers for Central America

US
Mexico
Costa Rica
Trinidad and Tobago
Guatemala
Panama

How many went through? That's right, the top 4. Even Ireland would come second every time in that lot if they took Mexico's place, where the play off for fourth (yes fourth) place is against fuckin Bahrain.

For the record, Mexico lost to Trinidad and Tobago in the qualifiers. We drew with iceland but never lost, that's for sure, and Trinidad are WAY WAY worse than that.

 

[avernus]

Damn fuckin straight. When it comes to qualifying fpr any tournament, Ireland are under-acheiving wankers. When it comes to actually playing in the tournament if we make it, they are over-acheiving legends!

ya, it's true. We play like a bunch of schoolies - no teamwork, bad attitude, zero skillz. Losing to Iceland/Swiss/Macedonia is a goddamn joke. Considering we've beaten some real teams and played some good football in the finals.

 

[ratmonkey]

i agree with corm on both counts. we've only actually qualified for 3 WCs, not 4.

well, there was that one we were invited to but turned down because we couldn't afford the trip over to South America.

 

[P. Littbarski]

i agree with corm on both counts. we've only actually qualified for 3 WCs, not 4.

P. - it's very simple. Taking into account your Icelands and your Lithuania, look at the qualifiers for Central America

US
Mexico
Costa Rica
Trinidad and Tobago
Guatemala
Panama

How many went through? That's right, the top 4. Even Ireland would come second every time in that lot if they took Mexico's place, where the play off for fourth (yes fourth) place is against fuckin Bahrain.

For the record, Mexico lost to Trinidad and Tobago in the qualifiers. We drew with iceland but never lost, that's for sure, and Trinidad are WAY WAY worse than that.

i agree with the point that the qualifying format for concacaf is a bit dodgy (same for oceania), but their perfomances in the WC itself against 'better' teams definitely would not indicate that they have fluked a decent ranking (although i admit that the fifa rankings are also shite) and the only reason they got there was due to weak qualifying opposition.

for example, look at their 1st round results from their last 3 world cups (made it to the second round in last 3 wc's)

2002 - drew with italy, wins against ecuador and croatia,
1998 - draw with holland, belgium, win against korea
1994 - draw with italy, win against ireland, loss against norway.

thats One defeat in 9 first round WC games against world class opposition (from the last 3 years)...seems very consistent to me and certainly not the mark of a team that only gets to the world cup because their opposition in qualifying is crap.

does it make them a top 10 team...i dunno...maybe...does it make them a top 5 team...probably not, but the fact is they are a very good, solid and consistent team.

we're not going to agree on this hokey, but thats football innit, but we'll see who has the last laugh when mexico lift the trophy in berlin on the 9th

 

[Jerry Twig]

we're not going to agree on this hokey, but thats football innit, but we'll see who has the last laugh when mexico lift the trophy in berlin on the 9th

haha! i think we are not on the same page here. i never said Mexico only qualify cos of a crap qualifying group, only that 12 WCs is not as impressive as it may seem because thay can't BUT qualify. i stand by that. Ireland would have 12 WCs under their belt in the same position.

Haiving said that, i totally agree with you about Mexico being a good team. I fuckin love the Mexican team and I'm always rooting for them.

However, as for your "consistency in last 3 WCs 1st rounds", Ireland have only been beaten once in their 3 first rounds too. By Mexico!!!

I think that wraps it up nicely.

 

[Jerry Twig]

'Discussion'. Right, I'm for Mexico now!

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to P. Littbarski again etc.

 

[avernus]

Mexico are fine..full of goddamn mexicans though. Actually they have some dude playing for them that's supposed to rule. Maybe they'll perform well this time around. Serious under achievers.

 

[Richie]

If you look back at the old qualifying campaigns Ireland are pretty unlucky not to have been in at least 5 or 6 World Cups by now... losing 1-0 in a playoff with Spain in 1966 and then going out on goal difference to France in 1982 after a very dubious 1-0 loss in Brussels (by all accounts we were denied a legitimate goal, and theirs came from a spurious free kick right at the end). That said, when we actually do manage to qualify it's always staggering across the line at the last second.. it'd be nice to do it comfortably for once. Can't see that happening for a good while now, with our fourth tier seeding.

 

[nlgbbbblth]

If you look back at the old qualifying campaigns Ireland are pretty unlucky not to have been in at least 5 or 6 World Cups by now... losing 1-0 in a playoff with Spain in 1966 and then going out on goal difference to France in 1982 after a very dubious 1-0 loss in Brussels (by all accounts we were denied a legitimate goal, and theirs came from a spurious free kick right at the end).

Total sickener that 1982 campaign. We had a pretty good team too - would have done well in Spain if we got there.

 

[IFF]

it is my own opinion that the fifa world rankings are worthless. they mean nothing

they aren't used for deciding qualifying groups or even pots for things, they aren';t used for deciding

what is the use of them?

atleast with the world rankings in cycling they are put to some use