Discredited FIFA Rankings System Overhauled

[Chris O'Connor]

Fifa overhauls much-derided ranking system that penalised England for playing too many friendlies



England’s hopes of avoiding a ‘Group of Death’ at future World Cups were boosted on Sunday after the much-derided Fifa rankings system was overhauled.

The governing body’s ruling council voted to scrap its existing method of rating each national team and replace it with what president Gianni Infantino declared was a “hopefully more fair” alternative.

The change follows years of complaints about the rankings, which are used dictate the seven countries seeded for the finals along with the tournament hosts.

Much of the criticism focused on a loophole that saw England - currently ranked 12th - penalised for playing too many pre-World Cup friendlies, costing them a seeding this summer.

The same happened in 2014 when they were drawn in the ‘Group of Death’ along with Italy, Uruguay and Costa Rica and were eliminated after just two games.

The existing system also allowed the likes of Wales, Switzerland and Poland to climb the table by playing fewer and fewer friendlies, something that saw the latter two seeded for Russia.

This is because countries are currently awarded far more points for results in competitive games and the rankings are based not on the total earned but the average per match.

The latter will no longer be the case after the World Cup, with points added or subtracted from a team’s existing total using the Elo rating system originally developed for chess and since adopted by a number of sports.

The new formula for calculating changes to a nation’s points total after each match they play also places more emphasis on the importance of the game.

Infantino said: “I hope it will be maybe a little bit less subject to criticism to the current one.”

England repeatedly refused to exploit the existing loophole, with manager Gareth Southgate last year making it clear they should play the world’s best sides in order to better prepare for summer tournaments.

The Football Association is also keen on fixtures against leading nations in order to raise more money to invest back into the game.

As a result, it lined up Germany, Brazil, Holland and Italy for pre-World Cup friendlies, with England winning just one of those fixtures.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-c...uch-derided-ranking-system-penalised-england/

 

[peteblue]

We’ll still get knocked out early though......

 

[dublinbluenose]

ELO ratings are just as crap

 

[toffeejack]

This is because countries are currently awarded far more points for results in competitive games

Ermmm, shouldn't this be the case?

 

[mmmmsnouts]

The old ranking system was obviously messed up. It had the USA something like 4th going into Germany 2006 and we flamed out in the group stage.

As if England deserved to be seeded with that deeply mediocre squad, though.

 

[Chris O'Connor]

Ermmm, shouldn't this be the case?

Reading the article and putting it in context gives the correct picture.

Isolating a sentence and showing it with no context can give completely the wrong picture

The key point is in the Average being used which distorts rankings

 

[Chris O'Connor]

ELO ratings are just as crap

This just isn't true they're not perfect but much better

 

[chrissyjack]

ELO ratings are just as crap

What has Jeff Lynne got to do with it

 

[Khalekan]

Fifa overhauls much-derided ranking system that penalised England for playing too many friendlies



England’s hopes of avoiding a ‘Group of Death’ at future World Cups were boosted on Sunday after the much-derided Fifa rankings system was overhauled.

The governing body’s ruling council voted to scrap its existing method of rating each national team and replace it with what president Gianni Infantino declared was a “hopefully more fair” alternative.

The change follows years of complaints about the rankings, which are used dictate the seven countries seeded for the finals along with the tournament hosts.

Much of the criticism focused on a loophole that saw England - currently ranked 12th - penalised for playing too many pre-World Cup friendlies, costing them a seeding this summer.

The same happened in 2014 when they were drawn in the ‘Group of Death’ along with Italy, Uruguay and Costa Rica and were eliminated after just two games.

The existing system also allowed the likes of Wales, Switzerland and Poland to climb the table by playing fewer and fewer friendlies, something that saw the latter two seeded for Russia.

This is because countries are currently awarded far more points for results in competitive games and the rankings are based not on the total earned but the average per match.

The latter will no longer be the case after the World Cup, with points added or subtracted from a team’s existing total using the Elo rating system originally developed for chess and since adopted by a number of sports.

The new formula for calculating changes to a nation’s points total after each match they play also places more emphasis on the importance of the game.

Infantino said: “I hope it will be maybe a little bit less subject to criticism to the current one.”

England repeatedly refused to exploit the existing loophole, with manager Gareth Southgate last year making it clear they should play the world’s best sides in order to better prepare for summer tournaments.

The Football Association is also keen on fixtures against leading nations in order to raise more money to invest back into the game.

As a result, it lined up Germany, Brazil, Holland and Italy for pre-World Cup friendlies, with England winning just one of those fixtures.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-c...uch-derided-ranking-system-penalised-england/

So....if I am reading that right, thr F.A. only want to play friendly fuxtures against high profiie teams which are better than England, the more lucrative fixtures, ergo the results woould impact adversely on their rankings so they are moaning about it.

Talk about wanting your cake and eating it.

Anyway....I thought international friendlies were to become obsolete now they are having this daft international keague that no bugger was interested in.

 

[Chris O'Connor]

So....if I am reading that right, thr F.A. only want to play friendly fuxtures against high profiie teams which are better than England, the more lucrative fixtures, ergo the results woould impact adversely on their rankings so they are moaning about it.

Talk about wanting your cake and eating it.

Anyway....I thought international friendlies were to become obsolete now they are having this daft international keague that no bugger was interested in.

No you're not reading it correctly at all, the FA didnt want to manipulate the rankings by playing far less friendlies so that their qualifiers, usually won tbf, didn't constitute a far higher proportion of their total games and consequently give them a much higher ranking.

(As Switzerland, Wales, Poland and USA have almost silently done in the past, even Finland under Roy Hodgson's did this to achieve an all time high of 33 for them)

The FA felt rightly or wrongly that playing far better opposition in friendlies rather than the mediocre one they so often faced in qualifying gave them a better preparation and a far more realistic picture of where they were really lacking.

They didnt want to compromise and play less of these just to achieve a much higher ranking.

Almost completely opposite to the conclusion you came up with in fact.

.

 

[Khalekan]

The FA felt rightly or wrongly that playing far better opposition in friendlies rather than the mediocre one they so often faced in qualifying gave them a better preparation and a far more realistic picture of where they were really lacking.

They didnt want to compromise and play less of these just to achieve a much higher ranking.

Almost completely opposite to the conclusion you came up with in fact.

.

From the article.....

The Football Association is also keen on fixtures against leading nations in order to raise more money to invest back into the game.

As a result, it lined up Germany, Brazil, Holland and Italy for pre-World Cup friendlies, with England winning just one of those fixtures.

 

[Chris O'Connor]

From the article.....

The Football Association is also keen on fixtures against leading nations in order to raise more money to invest back into the game.

As a result, it lined up Germany, Brazil, Holland and Italy for pre-World Cup friendlies, with England winning just one of those fixtures.

As they didn't want to just go for a higher ranking by compromising on their aims of playing friendlies against the better nations.

They think such friendlies against better opposition rather than just easy qualifiers give a far better idea of where they are, and in addition they hope a better preparation for the tournament plus it raises more revenue.

They thought the need to play more games against meaningful opposition was more important than just increasing their ranking by playing less lucrative easy friendlies or no friendlies at all, and just qualifiers.

Why do you think the rankings were so widely criticized in the first place?

It's not something new or that just England have complained about even if they've been more adversely affected by it than most.

It's recognised by FIFA as being a long standing fault that has benefitted those who just do well in qualifiers and play few other games.

They took action for a valid reason not on a whim.

 

[Khalekan]

As they didn't want to just go for a higher ranking by compromising on their aims of playing friendlies against the better nations.

They think such friendlies against better opposition rather than just easy qualifiers give a far better idea of where they are, and in addition they hope a better preparation for the tournament plus it raises more revenue.

They thought the need to play more games against meaningful opposition was more important than just increasing their ranking by playing less lucrative easy friendlies or no friendlies at all, and just qualifiers.

Why do you think the rankings were so widely criticized in the first place?

It's not something new or that just England have complained about even if they've been more adversely affected by it than most.

It's recognised by FIFA as being a long standing fault that has benefitted those who just do well in qualifiers and play few other games.

They took action for a valid reason not on a whim.

Well, I am just quoting from an article which you posted and which clearly states the F.A. want to play the top teams in friendlies because they make more money from them

 

[Chris O'Connor]

Well, I am just quoting from an article which you posted and which clearly states the F.A. want to play the top teams in friendlies because they make more money from them

Yes but the article was about rankings.

As I said if you isolate a section and take it out of the context it was in, you can use it to apply completely different meanings to what it was originally intended to illustrate

 

[WA Toffee]

There is only one seed in each group, the rest are drawn according to their continent. England, the same as every other European nation will always have a high chance of facing a South American team and another European team. And losing to the North American team