FIFA Men's World Ranking

The ranking system has been revamped on several occasions, generally responding to criticism that the preceding calculation method did not effectively reflect the relative strengths of the national teams.

In December 1992, FIFA first published a listing in rank order of its men's member associations to provide a basis for comparison of the relative strengths of these teams.

[5] The calculation formula was adjusted by the following factors:[5] In example, despite being undefeated for all matches played in 1994, the world ranking of England still dropped seven places from December 1993 to December 1994, because the team only scored points from six lower factored friendly games (as per rule 4).

[13] Goals scored and home or away advantage were no longer taken into account, and other aspects of the calculations, including the importance attributed to different types of match, were revised.

Many football enthusiasts felt it was inaccurate, especially when compared to other ranking systems and that it was not sufficiently responsive to changes in the performance of individual teams.

[14] FIFA announced on 10 June 2018 that the ranking system would be updated following the 2018 World Cup finals.

[15] The new methodology does not account for home or away games and margin of the victory, as in several popular unofficial Elo-based ranking systems.

[21] When the system was introduced, Germany debuted as the top-ranked team following their extended period of dominance in which they had reached the three previous FIFA World Cup finals, winning one of them.

Brazil took the lead in the run up to the 1994 FIFA World Cup after winning eight and losing only one of nine qualification matches, while on the way scoring twenty goals and conceding just four.

Italy then led for a short time on the back of their own equally successful World Cup qualifying campaign, after which the top place was re-claimed by Germany.

Germany led again during the 1994 World Cup, until Brazil's victory in that competition gave them a large lead that would stand up for nearly seven years, until they were surpassed by a strong France team that captured both the 1998 FIFA World Cup and the 2000 European Football Championship.

Just one month later, Argentina replaced them, reaching the top for the first time, but Italy regained its place in April.

After winning the Copa América 2007 in July, Brazil returned to the top, but were replaced by Italy in September and then Argentina in October.

In November 2015, Belgium became the leader in the FIFA rankings for the first time, after topping their Euro 2016 qualifying group.

[25] This lasted only one month, as Belgium regained sole possession of the top spot in October 2018 and kept it for nearly four years (only Brazil and Spain have had longer continuous streaks).

[27] The March 2011 ranking was used to seed the draw for the 2012 CAF Men's Pre-Olympic Tournament second qualifying round.

The Football Association uses the average of the last 24 months of rankings as one of the criteria for player work permits.

For instance, the seeding for the third round draw for AFC qualifiers was based on a special release of the FIFA World Rankings for Asian teams on 18 June 2021.

The perceived flaws in the FIFA system have led to the creation of a number of alternative rankings from football statisticians.

Further adaptations in 2006 were made to reduce the number of years' results considered from 8 to 4,[31][32] with greater reliance on matches from within the previous 12 months.

Still, criticisms of the rankings remained, with particular anomalies being noted including: the United States rise to fourth in 2006, to the surprise of even their own players;[33] Israel's climb to 15th in November 2008, which surprised the Israeli press;[34][35][36] and Belgium's rank of world number 1 in November 2015, even though Belgium had only played in one tournament final stage in the past 13 years.

2018 FIFA World Cup hosts Russia had the lowest ranking (70th) at the tournament, where they reached the quarter-finals before bowing out to eventual finalists Croatia on penalties.

In the 2010s, teams realised the ranking system could be 'gamed', specifically by avoiding playing non-competitive matches, particularly against weaker opponents.

The obvious advantage of using such a model is that we can calculate the probability of the particular outcome of the game, and, more importantly, adjust the parameters to take into account the frequency of the draws.

[46] Using the inferred probabilistic model, the statistical analysis indicates that introducing the home advantage parameter improves the prediction capacity of the ranking by approximately 3%.

Except in 2000 and 2001, where a different calculation method determined the award instead should be given to: The national team with the highest average points score in their seven best matches of the recent year ended on 31 December.

[49] In the years from 1993 until 2006, an official Best Mover Award was handed over to the coach of the winning national football team at the annual FIFA World Player Gala.

While an official award has not been made for national team movements since 2006, FIFA has continued each year to release a list of the 'Best Movers' in the rankings.

[52][53][54][48] An example of the informal on-going "Mover of the Year" award is the recognition made by FIFA to Colombia in 2012 in an official press release.