A few weeks ago the latest FIFA rankings showed England to be third best team in the world. That’s right… the same England who yet again failed to perform at a major tournament this summer and who have not to made the last four of a championship for 16 years. Absurd as it may seem for the three lions to occupy such lofty heights, ahead teams like Italy (6th), Argentina (7th) and Brazil (13th), scratch the surface and it would appear that this ranking is in fact fully justified.
Let’s begin first with the method FIFA employ for their rankings. It is a monumentally hard job to rank over 200 nations from every corner of the globe, who play only a handful of meaningful games every year. However, for once the beautiful game’s governing body seem to have all the boxes ticked. I say this because the ranking system takes into account two important variables; the importance of a match and the strength of opposition.
Therefore, worthless friendlies count for far less than serious competitive matches such as World Cup matches and qualifiers. And as for the ‘strength of opposition’, this is very useful in that it takes into account teams such as New Zealand and to a lesser extent some of the stronger African teams who face rather ordinary opposition regularly in competitive scenarios.
Of course there are a few issues that could do with being ironed out. For example, it would probably make more sense to publish the rankings less frequently, twice a year perhaps, to prevent teams reaching inflated positions from one or two good results here and there. However, when it boils down to it, the system ensures that to be the best you have to beat the best on the biggest stage. Simple.
Hold on a minute…England have been poor in major championships for years, so how can they justify such a high ranking? It is important at this point to see England’s 3rd position as a reflection on the relative weakness and inconsistency of the other traditionally strong nation rather than the strength of England. Take Brazil for example, who since winning the 2007 Copa America, have done very little in major championships, just the odd quarter final defeat on penalties…sound familiar?
The same can be said for teams such as Italy and France who both finished bottom of their groups in the World Cup two years ago. In other words the top end of international football is at a stage where two teams, Spain and Germany, are miles better than a cluster of under-performers. In such a situation teams who have been qualifying well for tournaments are bound to feature in the top ten. You can say what you like about England, but you can’t deny their recent qualification record. 14 wins 3 draws and 1 loss in the last two campaigns speaks for itself. To quote an old cliché ‘the league table doesn’t lie,’ even when it is devised by FIFA.
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