Voozh

FIFA rankings : A Guide
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By Thomas Esamie (thomase@extro.ucc.su.oz.au).


The dreaded FIFA rankings, how do they come about and all that guff. As
promised I am writing up some of the more pertinent points from
'Soccer Australia' (plug!) about the FIFA rankings because there was
interest. Shoulda known really.

The whole is thing is a computer program, devised by self confessed
soccer fanatics Markus Lamprecht and Hanspeter Stamm. Both are University
lecturers in Zuerich.

The following games are taken into consideration for the rankings.
- friendly matches
- qualifying and finals matches for the World Cup
- Continental championship qualifying and final matches

The following are NOT considered
- U17, U20 or U23 (olympic) matches of any kind
- Womens matches
- Indoor matches (If anyone asks me about the Silverdome I will personally
 send them 15 copies of the termcap and make them Vinnie Jones' training
 partner. Besides I think they mean futsal games)


As a balancing factor the following circumstances are considered when
points for a given game are awarded.

1) Points for winning, drawing or losing
2) Points for goals scored or conceded
3) Bonus points for away matches
4) Multiplying factors for various competitions
5) Regional strenghts and weaknesses

OK, before I go on to explain each of these points I'd like to make it
VERY CLEAR that the figures given are HYPOTHETICAL and are to be used
as a GUIDE only.

1)

Rather than just grant a 2-1-0 points system for wins, draws and losses some
compensatory factors for the relative strength of the two teams involved are
included. Consider the scenario of teams A,B,C and D. Team A is at the top
of World Soccer, B is pretty good, C is OK but nothing special, and D is
struggling against the local U12's.

A v D (ie teams with wildly different skill levels) :

 A wins A gets 1 point ; D gets 1 point
 Draw A gets 0 points; D gets 2 points
 D wins A loses 1 point; D gets 3 points


B v C (ie teams with a small difference in skill) :

 B wins B gets 1.9 points ; C gets 0.1 points
 Draw B gets 0.9 points ; C gets 1.1 points
 C wins B loses 0.1 point ; C gets 2.1 points

A1 v A2 (ie teams of equal strength) :

 Ax wins Ax gets 2 points ; Ay gets 0 points
 Draw Ax and Ay get 1 point each

The thing to note here is that the total value of points awarded in each case
remains at 2 but they are split in a decidedly more novel fashion. Before
anyone asks for a split of A v C matches I suggest you extrapolate.

2)

I think we can agree that a goal scored by a strong team against a weak team
is not as significant (valuable) as one scored by a weak team against a
stronger one. Savvy? Also it was decided that the first goal by a team
is of the greatest relevance, with subsequent goals being worth less. FIFA
also wants to ensure that goals scored is not as significant as the overall
result so the scheme will always treat the result above all else.

'Soccer Australia' printed a table here and I really don't like it, don't
ask me anything about it because I don't know. I'll just
Prepared and maintained by Thomas Esamie for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
Author: Thomas Esamie
Last updated: 21 Feb 1995
URL: https://www.rsssf.org/miscellaneous/fifaranking.html

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