FIFA ranking
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1. outline2. example
2.1. August 1993 to 1998 World Cup in France2.2. 1998 France World Cup to 2006 Germany World Cup2.3. After the 2006 World Cup in Germany and before the 2018 World Cup in Russia2.4. 2018 Russia World Cup to present
3. Calculation method3.1. August 1993 to 1998 World Cup in France3.2. 1998 France World Cup to 2006 Germany World Cup3.3. After the 2006 World Cup in Germany and before the 2018 World Cup in Russia3.4. After the 2018 World Cup in Russia
4. All-time FIFA rankings4.1. 1 in all-time FIFA rankings4.2. Historical average FIFA rankings for major countries4.3. FIFA rankings of the World Cup semifinal teams just before the tournament
5. digression6. see together1. outline
FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking
These are the scores and rankings given by FIFA to make it easy to see the football skills of each country's men's team. Matches that do not meet the A-match criteria, such as youth tournaments and Olympic games, are excluded from the FIFA ranking criteria. The women's team has a separate FIFA Women's Ranking .
Official rankings are reflected in real time on fifa.com .[1]
These are the scores and rankings given by FIFA to make it easy to see the football skills of each country's men's team. Matches that do not meet the A-match criteria, such as youth tournaments and Olympic games, are excluded from the FIFA ranking criteria. The women's team has a separate FIFA Women's Ranking .
Official rankings are reflected in real time on fifa.com .[1]
2. example
Write concrete examples here and write abstract mathematics in the method of calculation.
2.1. August 1993 to 1998 World Cup in France
The FIFA Ranking is a system since 1993. But in the early days of the FIFA ranking, it was very simple, so the reliability was very low. The reason for this was that it was a friendly, Continental Cup finals and qualifiers, or the World Cup continent qualifiers, and the more you won, the more you added three plus points, and even if you were defeated, the score was not cut at all. So before the 1998 French World Cup finals, it was quite advantageous for the ranking. So the first place in the FIFA ranking was Germany , who won the 1990 World Cup, the last World Cup before the FIFA ranking was created .
South Korea and Japan , who dug into the loopholes and won the game with the weak teams in Asia, were ranked 17th and 9th in the FIFA rankings just before the 1998 World Cup. Naturally, the FIFA ranking and the actual skills played separately, so the Republic of Korea and Japan scored a draw and destroyed the lowest in the group stage. At the time, the strong team Argentina was 19th and the Netherlands was 25th.
As a result, there was a lot of talk about it being completely unrelated to actual skill, and this controversy disappeared when the FIFA ranking calculation method was revised after the 1998 France World Cup.
South Korea and Japan , who dug into the loopholes and won the game with the weak teams in Asia, were ranked 17th and 9th in the FIFA rankings just before the 1998 World Cup. Naturally, the FIFA ranking and the actual skills played separately, so the Republic of Korea and Japan scored a draw and destroyed the lowest in the group stage. At the time, the strong team Argentina was 19th and the Netherlands was 25th.
As a result, there was a lot of talk about it being completely unrelated to actual skill, and this controversy disappeared when the FIFA ranking calculation method was revised after the 1998 France World Cup.
2.2. 1998 France World Cup to 2006 Germany World Cup
Points are awarded based on the points won in A match and converted into rankings. Regardless of your ranking, if you lose, your ranking will go down.
- win/loss
3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for a loss. You get a higher score for a win against a higher ranked team, and a lower score for a win against a lower ranked team. A win in a penalty shoot-out is awarded a victory point (2 points), and a losing team is awarded a point for a draw (1 point). However, it can be cut if you lose big by more than 3 points to a relatively weak team. - score
In case of a win, the higher the goal difference with the opponent, the higher the score. - conceded
If you lose against a team with a much lower ranking than yourself, the higher the goal difference with the opponent, the more points are deducted. - match importance
Depending on the importance of the game, the base score is applied differently. The World Cup finals are the highest, followed by the Continental Championship finals, the Confederations Cup and Continental Championship qualifiers, and the World Cup qualifiers are the same. Friendly match under it. Occasionally, small international competitions recognized by FIFA are held (such as Japan's Kirin Cup or Thailand's King's Cup ), and in this case, you can get a score halfway between World Cup qualifiers and friendly matches. In the case of Olympic soccer, although it is an official international competition, FIFA scores are not applied. - power of the continent[2]
- recent match
The weight of recent match results is high, and the points awarded for past matches are small. 100% for less than 1 year, 50% for 1-2 years, 30% for 2-3 years, and 20% for 3-4 years.
In any case, it's quite complex, so to put it simply:
- It is advantageous if you belong to a strong continent.
- It is advantageous if you win a lot by playing a lot of matches.
- It is advantageous to win a lot in big competitions (especially FIFA-sponsored cup competitions).
- It is advantageous to win away matches.
- It is advantageous if you win a lot recently.
- It is advantageous to defeat a country with a higher FIFA ranking than oneself.
2.3. After the 2006 World Cup in Germany and before the 2018 World Cup in Russia
In the revised FIFA rankings after the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the tally based on the past 8 years has been drastically reduced to the past 4 years. In addition, it was changed from the method of giving the same score to all continents to the method of giving points differently for each continent. The continental points applied from the 2006 World Cup in Germany to the 2010 South Africa World Cup finals are in the order of Europe>South America>Africa>North and Central America>Asia>Oceania.
In addition, at the time of the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany , the United States ranked 4th and Mexico rose to 6th, and there was a situation where Mexico became the top seed, neither the host country nor the championship candidate.[3]
Continental differentials are very problematic, as teams like the Liechtenstein national football team are bizarrely overrated here. Except for South America, all continents have very large differences between teams, and among them, Europe is the worst.
In 2013, Brazil fell to the top 20 in the FIFA rankings. As a host country for the 2014 World Cup , it does not participate in the regional qualifiers, so it is unable to accumulate World Cup regional qualifier points, which is an inevitable part of the FIFA rankings. As of June 2013, Brazil's FIFA ranking was 22nd, and the 2011 Copa America results were included within the last two years. However, even though the Continental Cup was reflected as important in the FIFA rankings by ×3.0 times, Brazil was eliminated in the quarterfinals. In addition, their performance in the Copa group stage was also poor. In other words, even though the performance in the last two years was ×0.5 times and the weight of the Continental Cup performance was ×3.0, Brazil’s performance was poor, which inevitably had a negative impact on the average FIFA ranking. In addition, since they are only playing friendly matches with a weight of ×1.0 and there have been losses in friendly matches, it is bound to have a negative impact on Brazil's FIFA ranking. And Brazil, which fell to 22nd in the FIFA rankings , won all 5 matches from the group stage to the final in the Confederation Cup, which is weighted x3.0 like the continental cup finals.[4] I gained a lot of points, and thanks to this, I soared to 9th place like lightning.
In some continents, the method of participating in regional qualifiers may vary depending on the FIFA ranking. For example, in the case of Africa, among the 53 countries, only the bottom 10 countries based on the FIFA rankings will hold the 0th round preliminary round, making up 48 countries. In the case of North and Central America, the rankings will also be divided based on the FIFA rankings, and about half will also go through the 0 round preliminary round. In the World Cup finals, the top seed is given to the top seven countries in the FIFA rankings, excluding the host country's national team.
Although many revisions have been made, reliability tends to be somewhat low, especially in Asia and North and Central America. In the case of North and Central America, the FIFA rankings of upper-mid to mid-tier teams, excluding top-ranked teams such as Mexico and the United States, tend to be higher compared to their skills. This is because it is relatively easier for North and Central American mid-to-mid tier teams to rise up the FIFA rankings compared to Asia's upper-to-mid tier teams. The FIFA ranking largely reflects the weight of the competition, which is 4x for the World Cup finals, 3x for the Continental Cup finals and Confederation Cups, 2.5x for the Continental Cup qualifiers and World Cup regional qualifiers, and 1x for friendlies.
On the other hand, in the case of North and Central America, the continental cup finals with three times the weight are held every two years, and the continental cup qualifiers are also bound to be held more frequently than in Asia. However, in the case of Asia, the continental cup finals with three times the weight are held every four years, and the continental cup qualifiers are also held less frequently than in North and Central America. In addition, since North and Central America have relatively more money than Asia, they can hold more tournaments with the goal of raising the average FIFA ranking. In this situation, it is natural that the FIFA rankings of the upper-middle to mid-tier teams in North and Central America will be relatively higher than the FIFA rankings of the upper-middle to mid-tier teams in Asia.
On the other hand, in the case of Asia, apart from the FIFA rankings, actual skills are stronger on average than North and Central America.[5]
In any case, the FIFA ranking is somewhat controversial, but the International Football Federation ( FIFA) is constantly working to increase the public confidence and utilization of the FIFA ranking. For example, since the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the top seed assignment has been made exclusively through the FIFA rankings. The top seed for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil included Switzerland , Belgium and Colombia , who were not classified as favorites at the time .[6]
And traditional football powerhouses Italy , England , the Netherlands and France have all fallen from the top seed. This can be seen as an action by the International Football Federation to increase the authority and importance of the FIFA rankings in the long term by significantly strengthening the organic link between tournament management and the FIFA rankings.
For the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, pot allocation was done through FIFA rankings.[7] It was Australia that really enjoyed it here . This is because the Korean national soccer team, which had previously been one of the four favorites to win the Asian Cup finals, had a very poor match performance from 2013 to February 2014, and its average score in the FIFA rankings was significantly reduced, so it was pushed to the 2nd pot and placed in the same group. In addition, they lost 1-0 to Korea in the third round of the group stage of the Asian Cup finals, missing out on first place and giving Korea a relatively more advantageous route to victory.[8] Of course, he paid it back in the final.
For reference, the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia/regional qualifiers (Asia) were also seeded and drawn based on the FIFA rankings. And the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia group draw was also changed from continent first to FIFA ranking first.
In addition, at the time of the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany , the United States ranked 4th and Mexico rose to 6th, and there was a situation where Mexico became the top seed, neither the host country nor the championship candidate.[3]
Continental differentials are very problematic, as teams like the Liechtenstein national football team are bizarrely overrated here. Except for South America, all continents have very large differences between teams, and among them, Europe is the worst.
In 2013, Brazil fell to the top 20 in the FIFA rankings. As a host country for the 2014 World Cup , it does not participate in the regional qualifiers, so it is unable to accumulate World Cup regional qualifier points, which is an inevitable part of the FIFA rankings. As of June 2013, Brazil's FIFA ranking was 22nd, and the 2011 Copa America results were included within the last two years. However, even though the Continental Cup was reflected as important in the FIFA rankings by ×3.0 times, Brazil was eliminated in the quarterfinals. In addition, their performance in the Copa group stage was also poor. In other words, even though the performance in the last two years was ×0.5 times and the weight of the Continental Cup performance was ×3.0, Brazil’s performance was poor, which inevitably had a negative impact on the average FIFA ranking. In addition, since they are only playing friendly matches with a weight of ×1.0 and there have been losses in friendly matches, it is bound to have a negative impact on Brazil's FIFA ranking. And Brazil, which fell to 22nd in the FIFA rankings , won all 5 matches from the group stage to the final in the Confederation Cup, which is weighted x3.0 like the continental cup finals.[4] I gained a lot of points, and thanks to this, I soared to 9th place like lightning.
In some continents, the method of participating in regional qualifiers may vary depending on the FIFA ranking. For example, in the case of Africa, among the 53 countries, only the bottom 10 countries based on the FIFA rankings will hold the 0th round preliminary round, making up 48 countries. In the case of North and Central America, the rankings will also be divided based on the FIFA rankings, and about half will also go through the 0 round preliminary round. In the World Cup finals, the top seed is given to the top seven countries in the FIFA rankings, excluding the host country's national team.
Although many revisions have been made, reliability tends to be somewhat low, especially in Asia and North and Central America. In the case of North and Central America, the FIFA rankings of upper-mid to mid-tier teams, excluding top-ranked teams such as Mexico and the United States, tend to be higher compared to their skills. This is because it is relatively easier for North and Central American mid-to-mid tier teams to rise up the FIFA rankings compared to Asia's upper-to-mid tier teams. The FIFA ranking largely reflects the weight of the competition, which is 4x for the World Cup finals, 3x for the Continental Cup finals and Confederation Cups, 2.5x for the Continental Cup qualifiers and World Cup regional qualifiers, and 1x for friendlies.
On the other hand, in the case of North and Central America, the continental cup finals with three times the weight are held every two years, and the continental cup qualifiers are also bound to be held more frequently than in Asia. However, in the case of Asia, the continental cup finals with three times the weight are held every four years, and the continental cup qualifiers are also held less frequently than in North and Central America. In addition, since North and Central America have relatively more money than Asia, they can hold more tournaments with the goal of raising the average FIFA ranking. In this situation, it is natural that the FIFA rankings of the upper-middle to mid-tier teams in North and Central America will be relatively higher than the FIFA rankings of the upper-middle to mid-tier teams in Asia.
On the other hand, in the case of Asia, apart from the FIFA rankings, actual skills are stronger on average than North and Central America.[5]
In any case, the FIFA ranking is somewhat controversial, but the International Football Federation ( FIFA) is constantly working to increase the public confidence and utilization of the FIFA ranking. For example, since the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the top seed assignment has been made exclusively through the FIFA rankings. The top seed for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil included Switzerland , Belgium and Colombia , who were not classified as favorites at the time .[6]
And traditional football powerhouses Italy , England , the Netherlands and France have all fallen from the top seed. This can be seen as an action by the International Football Federation to increase the authority and importance of the FIFA rankings in the long term by significantly strengthening the organic link between tournament management and the FIFA rankings.
For the 2015 AFC Asian Cup, pot allocation was done through FIFA rankings.[7] It was Australia that really enjoyed it here . This is because the Korean national soccer team, which had previously been one of the four favorites to win the Asian Cup finals, had a very poor match performance from 2013 to February 2014, and its average score in the FIFA rankings was significantly reduced, so it was pushed to the 2nd pot and placed in the same group. In addition, they lost 1-0 to Korea in the third round of the group stage of the Asian Cup finals, missing out on first place and giving Korea a relatively more advantageous route to victory.[8] Of course, he paid it back in the final.
For reference, the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia/regional qualifiers (Asia) were also seeded and drawn based on the FIFA rankings. And the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia group draw was also changed from continent first to FIFA ranking first.
2.4. 2018 Russia World Cup to present
It was announced that the FIFA ranking system will introduce an Elo rating system that does not have advantages or disadvantages by continent and gives a higher rating for wins and takes losses into account when playing against a strong team . With a 2:0 win against Germany, which was ranked first in the FIFA rankings at the time ( the Miracle of Kazan ), soccer fans and sports news were abuzz as it was expected that Korea would rise to the top 20 and gain an advantage in seeding in the future. However, as shown in the article , the FIFA ranking of the Korean national soccer team in August 2018 was the same at 57th . Like eloratings.net , it could have been ranked in the top 20 if it retroactively calculated all games from the decades before the 2018 World Cup and took goal difference into account, but the FIFA rankings did not apply retroactively and did not calculate goal difference, so it remained at 57th place.
The FIFA rankings of the top five AFC teams were 36th, 37th, 57th, 61st, and 67th (average 51.6th) as of June 2018 just before the World Cup, but about four years after the format was changed, the FIFA rankings in December 2022 immediately after the Qatar World Cup were 20th, 24, 25, 27, and 49th (average 29.0th), which was significantly higher. It went up. Even though there was no significant change in the performance of the five countries, this large increase shows that the existing FIFA ranking system was applied at a significant disadvantage to Asian countries, as stated in the calculation method paragraph.
This rise in rankings can be felt most clearly in World Cup pot allocation. Starting in 2015, the World Cup pot allocation method was completely changed to FIFA ranking starting with the 2018 Russia World Cup, and the cutoff points for each pot are as shown in the table below.
The FIFA rankings of the top five AFC teams were 36th, 37th, 57th, 61st, and 67th (average 51.6th) as of June 2018 just before the World Cup, but about four years after the format was changed, the FIFA rankings in December 2022 immediately after the Qatar World Cup were 20th, 24, 25, 27, and 49th (average 29.0th), which was significantly higher. It went up. Even though there was no significant change in the performance of the five countries, this large increase shows that the existing FIFA ranking system was applied at a significant disadvantage to Asian countries, as stated in the calculation method paragraph.
This rise in rankings can be felt most clearly in World Cup pot allocation. Starting in 2015, the World Cup pot allocation method was completely changed to FIFA ranking starting with the 2018 Russia World Cup, and the cutoff points for each pot are as shown in the table below.
2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Port Assignments 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia/group draw (Only the bottom 2 teams for each port are listed) | |||
port 1 | port 2 | port 3 | port 4 |
... | ... | ... | ... |
※ The above port allocation is based on the FIFA rankings as of October 2017. | |||
The cutoff line for port 2 is 18th, and the cutoff line for port 3 is 34th. As of September 2021, when the regional preliminaries were in progress, there were three Asian countries higher than the cutoff line of 34th. For the progress of the Three Kingdoms, refer to Korea's 3-port possibility document, etc. It should be taken into account that the FIFA ranking in 2017, like 2014, was low due to the sluggish performance of Korean soccer, but it was still too low.
Finally, the three teams (Iran, Japan, Korea) succeeded in being assigned to three ports and took advantage of the draw. This also shows that the existing FIFA ranking was disadvantageous to Asian countries. But in theory, the theoretically, it is the only thing that is, and when I opened the lid, I didn't see it more than I thought.[9]
As of 2025, in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be held with 12 groups Among these, Japan and Iran are ranked enough to enter pot 2 even if they were in the round of 32. In the end , a draw was held with all three countries having 2 pots .
The seeding of various competitions is based on the FIFA rankings, which has not changed since 2015.
Finally, the three teams (Iran, Japan, Korea) succeeded in being assigned to three ports and took advantage of the draw. This also shows that the existing FIFA ranking was disadvantageous to Asian countries. But in theory, the theoretically, it is the only thing that is, and when I opened the lid, I didn't see it more than I thought.[9]
As of 2025, in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be held with 12 groups Among these, Japan and Iran are ranked enough to enter pot 2 even if they were in the round of 32. In the end , a draw was held with all three countries having 2 pots .
The seeding of various competitions is based on the FIFA rankings, which has not changed since 2015.
3. Calculation method
3.1. August 1993 to 1998 World Cup in France
Since the content is too small, it is summarized in case paragraphs .
3.2. 1998 France World Cup to 2006 Germany World Cup
Points are awarded based on the points won in A match and converted into rankings. Regardless of your ranking, if you lose, your ranking will go down.[10]
- win/loss
3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for a loss. You get a higher score for a win against a higher ranked team, and a lower score for a win against a lower ranked team. A win in a penalty shoot-out is awarded a victory point (2 points), and a losing team is awarded a point for a draw (1 point). However, it can be cut if you lose big by more than 3 points to a relatively weak team. - score
In case of a win, the higher the goal difference with the opponent, the higher the score. - conceded
If you lose against a team with a much lower ranking than yourself, the higher the goal difference with the opponent, the more points are deducted. - match importance
Basic scores are different depending on economic importance. The World Cup finals are the highest, followed by the Continental Championships, Confederations Cup and Continental Championships and World Cup Qualifiers. A friendly match below that. Occasionally, FIFA has been recognized by a small international competition (Japan's Giraffe Cup or the Kings Cup of Thailand ), which can get a medium score between the World Cup qualifiers and friendly matches. In the case of the Olympic soccer event, the formal international convention is correct, but it is not a match, so the FIFA score is not applied. - recent match
The weight of recent match results is high, and the points awarded for past matches are small. 100% for less than 1 year, 50% for 1-2 years, 30% for 2-3 years, and 20% for 3-4 years.
In any case, it's quite complex, so to put it simply:
- It is advantageous if the team belongs to a continent with a high weight (South America, Europe).
- It is advantageous if you win a lot by playing a lot of matches.
- It is advantageous to win a lot in big competitions (especially FIFA-sponsored cup competitions).
- It is advantageous if you win a lot of recent matches.
- The more the team wins against a team with a higher FIFA ranking than its own team, the more advantageous it is.
3.3. After the 2006 World Cup in Germany and before the 2018 World Cup in Russia
The above method was controversial, so many revisions have been made since the 2006 Germany World Cup.
First, when the game ends, match points are awarded for that game. Match points are determined by multiplying the match result, importance, opposing team score, and continental weight.
Match point = match result[13] * Match importance[14] * Opponent team score[15] * Weights by continent[16]
To give an example unrelated to the current FIFA rankings,
First, when the game ends, match points are awarded for that game. Match points are determined by multiplying the match result, importance, opposing team score, and continental weight.
Match point = match result[13] * Match importance[14] * Opponent team score[15] * Weights by continent[16]
To give an example unrelated to the current FIFA rankings,
Example 1) In case Brazil draws against Argentina (2nd place in FIFA rankings) in a friendly match |
1 (match result) * 1 (match importance) * 198 (opponent team ranking) * 1 (weight by continent) = 198 |
3 (match result) * 4 (match importance) * 200 (opponent team ranking) * 0.92 (weight by continent) = 2208 |
Example 3) In case Saudi Arabia lost to Australia (102nd in FIFA rankings) in the Asian Cup finals |
0 (match result) * 3 (match importance) * 98 (opponent team ranking) * 0.85 (weight by continent) = 0 |
Calculate match points for each game as in the example above,[17] , the match points are averaged over 12-month increments based on the deadline. After that, weights for each period are applied to each score, and then all are added. Take an example,
(Scores after the period are match points for each game) |
Last 12 months: 108.8, 0, 387.6, 114.75, 112.2 - Average 144.67 |
Last 24 months: 0, 800.7, 1086.3, 632.4, 872.1, 0, 742.05, 826.2 - Average 619.97 |
Last 36 months: 162.84, 374.85, 158.18, 0, 0 - Average 139.17 |
Last 48 months: 0, 1264.8, 0, 0, 127.5 - Average 278.46 |
In this case, when weights according to the period are applied, they become 144.67, 309.98, 41.75, and 55.69, respectively. Adding these up gives the country's FIFA ranking score of 552.09. |
After calculating the FIFA ranking points for each country as described above, the FIFA ranking is obtained by arranging them in order.
It's complicated to explain, so to summarize:
- If you lose, your ranking will be adversely affected.[18]
- If you win a game (World Cup, Continental Cup) that is more important than friendly matches, you have an advantage in ranking.
- It is the same whether you lose to the number one player in the FIFA rankings or to the player who is ranked last in the world FIFA rankings.[19]
- Scores can go up or down even if you don't play.[20]
- Even if you win, your score may drop.[21]
There is a problem with this ranking calculation method. If a country that has not played an international match for 12 months gains a lot of points by playing only one game, the overall score will be very high and it will be ranked high. Also, because points are calculated on a 12-month basis, if you have won a lot of important games in the past 12 months and earned a lot of points, a ridiculous thing has happened where your points are deducted even if you win games after that. Additionally, there was a problem with European and South American countries gaining points compared to countries on other continents due to the weighting for each continent that did not take into account matches against weak teams from that continent.
On the other hand, the performance in the World Cup finals has a great influence on the FIFA rankings to the extent that the weight is as much as 4 times .
- Win: Add 300 points
- Runner-up: 50 points added
Both are paid separately regardless of calculation. As a result, the World Cup winner will be ranked No. 1 in the FIFA rankings with 1600 ~ 1700 units of FIFA scores. It was Spain in August 2010 and Germany in August 2014. Of course, like Italy in 2006, there was a case where he won only Brazil, who won the quarter -finals and was in second place.
3.4. After the 2018 World Cup in Russia
After the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, the Elo Rating System will be used for the FIFA ranking. FIFA.com's changing methods overlap with Elo Rating Documents. The existing methods are used until June 2018, and July is skipped to use a new method from August.
[Expand/Collapse Importance]
05: Friendly matches other than Match Day A
10: Friendly matches on Match Day A
15: Nations League group stage match
25: Nations League final knockout match or regional qualifying match for Continental Cup or FIFA World Cup
35: Continental Cup Final Quarter-final matches
40: Continental Cup Quarterfinals or higher matches or FIFA Confed Cup matches
50: FIFA World Cup Qualifying matches below the quarter-finals
60: FIFA World Cup Quarterfinals or higher
Expected match result 1/(10^((Opponent's original score - My team's original score)/600)+1)
A with 1500 points beat B with 1300 points in the FIFA World Cup regional qualifiers. At this time, the new scores of Team A and Team B are calculated as follows.
A: 1500+25*(1-1/(10^((1300-1500)/600)+1))=about 1500+8=about 1508
B: 1300+25*(0-1/(10^((1500-1300)/600)+1))=about 1300-8=about 1292
* As in the second game of two consecutive tournaments, there are cases where a game is won (or lost) in regular time or extra time, but a penalty shoot-out is held to determine who advances to the next round.[example] In this case, it is regarded as a normal win or loss, not a penalty shootout win, and a win is counted as a match result of 1, and a loss as a match result of 0.
* In cases where points must be lost in the knockout rounds of the Continental Cup and World Cup finals , points will not be lost as an exception.[reason]
- Advantages
- Officials - The transition from the previous scoring system will be seamless.
- Official - The previous method of calculating averages every 12 months had several problems, including the problem that scores could be distorted by avoiding games ( see the Wikipedia article on criticism of FIFA rankings ). The new method does not have that problem because it does not average every 12 months. The word is 'distortion', but there are news reports that call this 'manipulation', so it's a pretty serious problem.
- Official - In the previous FIFA rankings, it was difficult for countries other than Europe and South America to raise their scores because continental weights existed. The new method does not have such a problem as there is no weighting for each continent. It is the most noticeable change from the point of view of the general public. In the previous method, countries in Asia and Africa, for no reason, scored 15% lower than Europe and South America.
- Officials - The importance of the game has been subdivided. Additionally, an exception clause was created to prevent points from being deducted for losing a tournament.
- Official - Compared to the previous method, even if the host country of the World Cup finals does not qualify, the ranking is relatively less reduced.[25]
- disadvantage
- Official -Home Advantage is not reflected. As you can see here , the home game win rate is much higher than the won -win rate in the game. In addition to the so -called pure skills, home advantage is evidence. However, in the current method, it is ignored and calculates the point as if it is a real skill, so there is a tendency for the FIFA rankings of teams such as the Korean soccer team , such as the Korean soccer team, which runs more than 70% of the A -match at home. The FIFA female ranking , which introduced ELO rating before the men's ranking, is a strange part of reflecting home advantage. In this way, the home team has 100 points, which can minimize the effect of home advantage on the score.
- Officials -the goal is not reflected. As of February 24 , if the world's No. 1 team Argentina won 6: 0 against San Marino, the world's last team, it would be a bit good, and if you won 1: 0, it would be common. In the current way, however, in the case, there is an error that evaluates that both of them were the same because they gave 1.00 as a result of the match. The FIFA female ranking , which introduced ELO rating before the men's ranking, is a strange part of reflecting the goal score. On this side, the result is 0.99 to the former and 0.85 to the latter. Expected odds are 0.98[26] It is evaluated that the former was as good as +0.01, and that the latter was not -0.13, so it can be calculated to meet common sense and better measure skills.
- If a strong team plays against a weak team and loses, they lose a lot of points and even if they win, they only gain a little. Because of this, there is a high possibility that teams in the top tier or higher will now play against teams in the same tier or higher to manage points, and because of this, it is highly likely that there will be fewer A-matches between teams in the top tier and lower tier than in the past. For countries on other continents, such as Korea, which are far away from strong European and South American countries and are relatively weak teams, it becomes more difficult to hold friendly matches against strong teams.
- As stated in the exception clause, in some cases no points are lost. In other words, inflation and inaccurate score distortion are bound to occur simultaneously.
For reference, there has long been a separate site that calculates Elo rating rankings in opposition to the problems with the existing FIFA rankings. Like eloratings.net . Looking at the Elo Rating rankings of Asian countries, including Korea, they remained about 10th higher than the FIFA rankings before the revision, which shows that the existing FIFA ranking system was applied significantly unfavorably to Asian countries due to the controversial weighting by continent. .
As a result of confirming in January 2021, FIFA.COM FIFA.COM, which was also written in Namuwiki that it was not announced at the time, was announced in July 2018 . What's more is that the score has changed. According to the original announcement, there is no problem with 1657 points in the third place in Brazil on June 7, 1431 points-> August 16, because it was second in Brazil (second place). However, according to the July 1 announcement, there was a fairly unpleasant number that Brazil (2151 points were prevous points) and 2160 points. The current score in June and the previus score in July are not matched, and it suddenly rises about 600 points, and it is not suitable for the seed standard in August.
From the FIFA ranking announced on April 7, 2021, it was changed from the previous method, which did not calculate the decimal point, to the second place of the decimal point. The tie is also reduced. fifa.com news
4. All-time FIFA rankings
4.1. 1 in all-time FIFA rankings
- #1 all time
Since the FIFA Rankings were newly established in 1993, Germany has taken first place for the first time, and since then, eight countries have ranked first. See below for countries that have previously ranked first in the FIFA rankings. Except for Belgium and the Netherlands , all countries have experience winning the World Cup. Belgium is the only country that has ever ranked first in the FIFA rankings without ever advancing to the World Cup finals or winning its continental cup. Conversely, among countries that have won the World Cup, only England and Uruguay have never ranked first.[27] The country that has ranked first most times in history and the team with the most consecutive first place records is Brazil .
- year 2014
Spain, which was in first place before the World Cup, was eliminated in the round of 32 with 1 win and 2 losses (23rd place), and Germany, the champion with 6 wins and 1 draw, rose to first place.
- 2015
The October 9, 2015 disaster caused Germany and Argentina to lose ranking points. As a result, Belgium reached the top spot in the FIFA rankings for the first time in October 2015. What sets Belgium apart from other experienced top-ranked nations is that they have never reached the final of a World Cup. Their best performance was fourth place in the 1986 Mexico World Cup and third place in the 2018 Russia World Cup. Belgium's only world championship was the gold medal in football at the 1920 A-match Olympics before the World Cup was established.
- 2016
Argentina regained first place by defeating Colombia, Chile, and Bolivia in the regional preliminary round. However, even this showed difficulties in the subsequent preliminaries, and Brazil, which had been wandering in the meantime, gradually recovered from the second half of 2016 and rose to first place in the FIFA rankings for the first time in seven years.
- 2017
As of June 2017, the TOP 5 FIFA rankings included only South America, while Germany was the only European country to be included. Brazil ranked 1st, Argentina ranked 2nd, Germany ranked 3rd, Chile ranked 4th, and Colombia ranked 5th. Then, Germany won the 2017 Confederations Cup and regained the top spot in the FIFA rankings after two years. At the time, the difference in scores was not large, so Brazil took first place again in the August rankings, but Germany has maintained its first place in the FIFA rankings since September.
- 2018
In August 2018, in the 2018 Russian World Cup finals, Germany was eliminated from the group stage of the round of 32 (22nd place) with 1 win and 2 losses, falling vertically, and suffered the humiliation of falling to the top 10 for the first time in 12 years. France, the World Cup winner, regained first place for the first time in 16 years since the Korea-Japan World Cup.
In September 2018, France and Belgium took first place together, creating a joint first place in the FIFA rankings for the first time in 25 years of history.[28]
In this way, from 2014 to 2018, many countries took turns taking first place. See table below.
In September 2018, France and Belgium took first place together, creating a joint first place in the FIFA rankings for the first time in 25 years of history.[28]
In this way, from 2014 to 2018, many countries took turns taking first place. See table below.
- 2019, 2020, 2021
Belgium continues to hold the top spot, but many people sarcastically call it a bubble because of its ambiguous performance in the World Cup and Euros. The general public ignores all performances except for the tournament trophy, but in fact, most ranking systems, including the FIFA ranking, take into account Belgium's usual winning streak in the World Cup regional qualifiers, continental cup regional qualifiers, and friendly matches, so it is natural that the ranking is high. In particular, Belgium earned a total of 30 points in the main tournament from the 2014 to 2018 World Cups, which is far higher than the average World Cup winning points of 20 points.
First of all, Belgium's 3rd place in the 2018 World Cup, not even 4th place, is not ambiguous and is a very good result. At that time, Belgium beat Brazil and England, the championship contenders, and recorded 3rd place in the World Cup. Looking at the detailed results, 1st place France 6 wins and 1 draw, 2nd place Croatia 4 wins, 2 draws, 1 loss, 3rd place Belgium 6 wins and 1 loss, which is even better than people's perception.
First of all, Belgium's 3rd place in the 2018 World Cup, not even 4th place, is not ambiguous and is a very good result. At that time, Belgium beat Brazil and England, the championship contenders, and recorded 3rd place in the World Cup. Looking at the detailed results, 1st place France 6 wins and 1 draw, 2nd place Croatia 4 wins, 2 draws, 1 loss, 3rd place Belgium 6 wins and 1 loss, which is even better than people's perception.
- 2022
In March 2022, Brazil ranked first in the FIFA rankings for the first time in four years and seven months since August 2017.
In December 2022, Brazil made it to the quarterfinals (7th place) of the 2018 World Cup, but still maintained 1st place. Seeing as there is no specific comment about this, it seems that Belgium was criticized only because of the abstract image of being weak. For reference, Argentina, the World Cup winner, is in 2nd place by only 2 points.[29]
In December 2022, Brazil made it to the quarterfinals (7th place) of the 2018 World Cup, but still maintained 1st place. Seeing as there is no specific comment about this, it seems that Belgium was criticized only because of the abstract image of being weak. For reference, Argentina, the World Cup winner, is in 2nd place by only 2 points.[29]
- 2023, 2024
Argentina, who won the 2022 Qatar World Cup, rose to first place in the FIFA rankings in April, while Brazil, which suffered a shock loss to Morocco in the international match after being eliminated in the World Cup quarterfinals (7th place), fell to 3rd place.
- 2025
Spain, which won the 2024 Euro, regained first place in the FIFA rankings in September 2025 for the first time in 11 years. Argentina also won the 2024 Copa America, but since then Argentina has struggled, while Spain has taken first place by winning most of the games. Argentina fell to 3rd place in September, but France, which was in 2nd place, drew with Iceland in the 2026 World Cup regional qualifiers, so Argentina rose to 2nd place and France fell to 3rd place.
- 2026
Since January, Spain has maintained the first place it has maintained since September of last year. The Morocco national football team ranked 8th, its highest ranking ever.
In the April FIFA rankings, France returned to first place after winning two games in the March international match.
Spain returned to first place after winning the 2026 FIFA World Cup .
In the April FIFA rankings, France returned to first place after winning two games in the March international match.
Spain returned to first place after winning the 2026 FIFA World Cup .
legend | ||||
Color[30] | team | Number of FIFA World Cup wins[A] | Lowest ranking ever | average ranking |
★★★★★ | 22 | 3 | ||
★★ | 25 | 6 | ||
★★★ | 24 | 5 | ||
Highest score: 3rd place once | 71 | 26 | ||
★★★★ | 22 | 6 | ||
★★ | 27 | 8 | ||
★★★★ | 20 | 9 | ||
Best result: Runner-up 3 times | 32 | 9 | ||
#1 all time | ||||||||||||
year month | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
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4.2. Historical average FIFA rankings for major countries
Average Rank as of January 2026
Brazil national football team - 3rd place
Argentina national football team - 5th place
Spain national football team - 6th place
Germany national football team - 6th place
France national football team - 8th place
Netherlands national football team - 9th place
Italy national football team - 9th place
England national football team - 10th place
Portugal national football team - 11th place
South Korea national football team - 39th place
Brazil national football team - 3rd place
Argentina national football team - 5th place
Spain national football team - 6th place
Germany national football team - 6th place
France national football team - 8th place
Netherlands national football team - 9th place
Italy national football team - 9th place
England national football team - 10th place
Portugal national football team - 11th place
South Korea national football team - 39th place
4.3. FIFA rankings of the World Cup semifinal teams just before the tournament
Competition | Championship | runner-up | 3rd place | 4th place |
1994 | brazil | Italy | Sweden | Bulgaria |
3rd place | 4th place | 11th | 29th | |
1998 | france | brazil | Netherlands | Croatia |
18th | 1st[32] | 11th | 25th | |
2002 | brazil | germany | turkiye | korea |
2nd place | 11th | 22nd | 40th[33] | |
2006 | Italy | france | germany | Portugal |
13th | 8th place | 19th | 7th | |
2010 | Spain | Netherlands | germany | Uruguay |
2nd place | 4th place | 6th place | 16th | |
2014 | germany | Argentina | Netherlands | brazil |
2nd place | 5th place | 15th | 3rd place | |
2018 | france | Croatia | Belgium | England |
7th | 20th | 3rd place | 12th | |
2022 | Argentina | france | Croatia | Morocco |
3rd place | 4th place | 12th | 22nd | |
2026 | Spain | Argentina | England | france |
2nd place | 1st | 4th place | 3rd place |
5. digression
Among the countries that have ranked first in the FIFA rankings or won the FIFA World Cup, Brazil and Argentina have never missed the top seed during the World Cup round of 32 group stage. Italy was a bitopseed in 2014 (Uruguay), Uruguay was a bitopseed in 2002 (France), 2010 (South Africa - host country), 2018 (Russia - host country), 2022 (Portugal), 2026 (Spain), France was a bitopseed in 2010 (South Africa - host country), Bitopseed in 2014 (Switzerland), England as Bitopseed in 2002 (Argentina), 2014 (Uruguay), and 2018 (Belgium), Spain as Bitopseed in 2018 (Portugal), Netherlands in 2006 (Argentina), 2014 (Spain), Belgium was a non-top seed in 2022 (Qatar-host country), Belgium was a non-top seed in 2002 (Japan-co-host country), and Germany was a non-top seed in 2022 (Spain).
6. see together
[1] In the past, rankings were announced monthly, but from April 2026, they will be reflected in real time.[2] Most controversial. Since the same applies in the continental qualifiers, European mid-tier teams often compete with European teams to rank higher than the top Asian or African teams.[3] In fact, Mexico was able to receive the top seed prior to the 2006 World Cup group draw in Germany, when selecting the top seed at the time, the overall score that reflected the results of the previous two World Cups and October 2005 FIFA rankings was used, and Mexico was ranked at the top. It was because it was in the ranking to be seeded.[4] They defeated Spain, their opponent in the final, 3-0.[5] This can be seen by comparing the Asian Cup finals and the North Central America Gold Cup finals. In the case of the Asian Cup finals, there are various winning teams, but in the case of the North and Central America Gold Cup finals, unlike in the past, since the 1990s, the two major mountain ranges of the United States and Mexico have shared the championship in all other competitions except Canada, the 2002 Gold Cup champion team. In particular, in the case of Mexico, when there is not much difference between invitation to Copa America or participation in the Confederations Cup and the Gold Cup, the Copa America and the Confederations Cup are mainly sent to the 1st team. do. In addition, in the North and Central America Gold Cup, there are often cases where non-FIFA members advance to the semifinals.[6] Of course, during the 2014 Brazil World Cup finals draw, Belgium and Colombia received attention as dark horses that could threaten Brazil, Germany, Argentina, and Spain, who were attracting attention as contenders for the championship. However, in the case of Switzerland, the FIFA ranking in October 2013 was 7th, and although they showed enough performance to be a top seed based on their performance in the regional preliminaries, they were eliminated in the Euro 2012 preliminaries and did not advance to the Euro 2012 finals. Switzerland was assigned to Group E during the regional preliminaries, and the fact that Group E was relatively close to the honey group compared to other groups led to many opinions that it did not seem suitable for the top seed.[7] Port allocation based on FIFA rankings on March 13, 2014[8] However, even if Australia advanced to the quarterfinals at the time, it was somewhat advantageous compared to other tournament lines, and it was never a honey line. This is because the semi -finals confront the winner of Group C, the second place in Group C. At the time, Group C was Iran and Iraq was Iraq. In other words, if Iran was not caught by Iraq, it was not easy because the quarter -final opponent was one of the strongest candidates for the 2015 Asian Cup finals, and Iraq's power was weaker than Iran during the 2015 Asian Cup finals, but in the Asian Cup finals This is because he has often showed his strong appearance.[9] Korea met Ghana in the 4th pot, but struggled more than expected due to the new naturalized players and ended up losing. This is a strange point considering that Ghana was eliminated in the group stage at the 2023 Nations Cup . However, it was a draw with Port 2 and a win with Port 1. Japan faced 4-pot Costa Rica, but Costa Rica was originally a 3-pot player, but due to the coronavirus, the schedule was messed up and they ended up in 4-pot, so instead of gaining, they only suffered a loss and ultimately lost. Instead, they tore up pots 1 and 2. Iran met with 4-pot Wales, but Wales was also ranked 18th at the time and had 2-3 pots, but it was the lowest ranking among the countries participating in the European playoffs, so it only ended up in pot 4, so it only suffered a loss rather than a gain. But I won.[10] This is because the defeat adversely affects the average of the FIFA ranking and is applied as a relative evaluation method.[11] It is the most controversial content. The same applies to the continental qualifiers, so European teams with European teams are often higher than the top teams in Asiana Africa.[12] Of course, the strength of this continent is slightly different after the World Cup finals after the World Cup finals, taking into account the results of each continent comprehensively in the World Cup finals held every four years.[13] 3 points for a win, 2 points for a win in a penalty shootout, 1 point for a loss or draw in a penalty shootout, 0 points for a loss[14] There are one friendly match, the World Cup or Continental Cup (Euro, Asian Cup, etc.), 2.5 points, the Continental Cup or Confederations Cup, and 4 World Cup finals.[15] 200 - Opponent team ranking, with the exception that first place is 200 points and the minimum score is 50 points.[16] The weights of both countries are added and then divided by 2. The weights change after the World Cup. South America 1, Europe 0.99, others 0.85[17] At this time, the ranking of the opposing team is based on the ranking at the time of the game.[18] The score of the game is 0 points, which adversely affects the average.[19] equally treated as 0 points.[20] Due to the change of the deadline over time, the 48 months old game is missing from the score calculation, and the game, which was 25 to 36 months, is 37-48 months.[21] If you win a lot of games with high weights and have a high average score, you additionally play games with low weights.[Koreanstandards] I=5 Friendly games outside of international match days (East Asian Cup, etc.)
I=10 Friendly matches on Match Day
I=25 FIFA World Cup Qualifying Matches
I=35 AFC Asian Cup final group stage and round of 16 matches
I=40 AFC Asian Cup Quarterfinals or higher
I=50 FIFA World Cup final group stage, round of 32, round of 16 matches
I=60 FIFA World Cup Quarterfinals or higher[example] For example, if you lose 1: 2 in the first leg and win 2: 1 in the second leg, you should proceed with a penalty shootout because it is a total of 3: 3.[reason] This is because if this exception clause is not applied, advancing to the tournament will be more detrimental to your ranking. In Group H of the Qatar World Cup, both South Korea and Uruguay recorded 1 win, 1 draw, and 1 loss, but due to multiple goals, Korea advanced to the round of 16 and Uruguay was eliminated. If there was no exception clause at this time, Korea, which lost to Brazil in the round of 16, would lose additional points, and since it advanced to the upper round, the absurdity of losing points could occur.[25] Russia, the host country of the 2018 World Cup, was not able to play the qualifying round, so the average score that could be obtained was 1 (Friendship Importance)*X (fluctuating due to win or loss), and the average score of other countries was 2.5 (Important)*Y ). It was safe to say that the host country's score was 2.5 times lower, and Russia, who finished the World Cup in the quarter -finals, had to start the competition with 65th in the FIFA ranking. In the changed way, the average score is exactly zero, whether it is the host country or not, so there is no yuan.[26] (1-1/(10^((1855.2-741.61)/600)+1))[27] These two teams are among the previous World Cup winners who have not won the World Cup since 1993, when the FIFA rankings were newly established.[28] The scores are the same, but when counting to decimal points, Belgium ranks first.[29] If you win without losing even once, first place is guaranteed, but in the case of Argentina, this happened because they lost to Saudi Arabia in the group stage of the round of 32. In addition, the Netherlands and France won in penalty shootouts, so if you take into account draws, Argentina has only won about four times in this World Cup.[30] Match the color of the team's uniform.[A] As of July 2026[32] Highest FIFA ranking among all top 4 teams.[33] Lowest FIFA ranking among top 4 teams in history.
I=10 Friendly matches on Match Day
I=25 FIFA World Cup Qualifying Matches
I=35 AFC Asian Cup final group stage and round of 16 matches
I=40 AFC Asian Cup Quarterfinals or higher
I=50 FIFA World Cup final group stage, round of 32, round of 16 matches
I=60 FIFA World Cup Quarterfinals or higher[example] For example, if you lose 1: 2 in the first leg and win 2: 1 in the second leg, you should proceed with a penalty shootout because it is a total of 3: 3.[reason] This is because if this exception clause is not applied, advancing to the tournament will be more detrimental to your ranking. In Group H of the Qatar World Cup, both South Korea and Uruguay recorded 1 win, 1 draw, and 1 loss, but due to multiple goals, Korea advanced to the round of 16 and Uruguay was eliminated. If there was no exception clause at this time, Korea, which lost to Brazil in the round of 16, would lose additional points, and since it advanced to the upper round, the absurdity of losing points could occur.[25] Russia, the host country of the 2018 World Cup, was not able to play the qualifying round, so the average score that could be obtained was 1 (Friendship Importance)*X (fluctuating due to win or loss), and the average score of other countries was 2.5 (Important)*Y ). It was safe to say that the host country's score was 2.5 times lower, and Russia, who finished the World Cup in the quarter -finals, had to start the competition with 65th in the FIFA ranking. In the changed way, the average score is exactly zero, whether it is the host country or not, so there is no yuan.[26] (1-1/(10^((1855.2-741.61)/600)+1))[27] These two teams are among the previous World Cup winners who have not won the World Cup since 1993, when the FIFA rankings were newly established.[28] The scores are the same, but when counting to decimal points, Belgium ranks first.[29] If you win without losing even once, first place is guaranteed, but in the case of Argentina, this happened because they lost to Saudi Arabia in the group stage of the round of 32. In addition, the Netherlands and France won in penalty shootouts, so if you take into account draws, Argentina has only won about four times in this World Cup.[30] Match the color of the team's uniform.[A] As of July 2026[32] Highest FIFA ranking among all top 4 teams.[33] Lowest FIFA ranking among top 4 teams in history.
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