FIFA Ranking: February 2010 final preview

Point totals for teams from the top 20 of the October 2007 ranking should be 100% correct. For the others, there's the issue of historical rankings published before July 2006.

FIFA will release the February ranking on March 3rd.

Included: matches up to and including February 25th, 2010 - the official deadline for matches. However, FIFA will include at least two more matches - the final (Korea DPR - Turkmenistan) and the third place match (Tajikistan - Myanmar) of the 2010 AFC Challenge Cup, since it's an official AFC competition. There's also a Malaysia - Yemen friendly - I'm not so sure about this one being included though.

Here's how the totals can change for these six teams:

Korea DPR (loss - 318, PSO loss - 321, PSO win - 324, win - 328)
Yemen (loss - 267, draw - 271, win - 281)
Turkmenistan (loss - 156, PSO loss - 167, PSO win - 177, win - 188)
Tajikistan (loss - 155, PSO loss - 161, PSO win - 168, win - 175)
Myanmar (loss - 147, PSO loss - 152, PSO win - 158, win - 163)
Malaysia (loss - 97, draw - 106, win - 124)

In the ranking table, the value displayed for these teams is the minimum possible value. This means that even if they lose, their total can't drop.

If the Malaysia - Yemen match won't be included, Malaysia will have 102 points and Yemen 290.

Montenegro will have their highest ever ranking - 71st, they were 72nd last month.

Two teams will return to their best ever ranking:

Serbia (13th - first achieved in September 2009)
Guam (182nd - first achieved in August 1996)

Morocco will have their worst ever ranking - 70th. They previous low was 67th in November 2009.

Best movers:

12 - Tajikistan
7 - Estonia
6 - Serbia, Slovenia, Peru, Guyana and Swaziland

Tajikistan can still improve.

Worst movers:

-19 - Korea DPR
-13 - Barbados
-12 - Turks and Caicos Islands

Korea DPR's total plunges because they have played 4 friendly matches (final included) against teams ranked below 100.

Best movers in the top 50:

6 - Serbia and Slovenia
5 - Slovakia
4 - Hungary

A good day for Central and Eastern Europe.

Worst movers in the top 50:

-7 - Denmark and Egypt
-6 - Japan and Nigeria
-4 - USA and Korea Republic

Devaluation of points (Egypt and Nigeria), defeats (Japan and Korea Republic) and friendly against a team with a low ranking (USA).

Cameroon overtake Nigeria for Africa's 2nd place.

Mexico are now ranked 1st in CONCACAF, USA drop to 2nd.

Germany up to 4th in Europe, at the expense of Portugal.

February 2010 rank - Team - January 2010 points - +/- Ranking - +/- Points

1	Spain	1642	0	15
2	Brazil	1594	0	26
3	Netherlands	1324	0	36
4	Italy	1226	0	17
5	Germany	1208	1	35
6	Portugal	1201	-1	25
7	France	1171	0	54
8	England	1109	1	33
9	Argentina	1087	-1	5
10	Greece	1074	2	44
11	Croatia	1050	0	-3
12	Russia	1042	1	16
13	Serbia	980	6	64
14	Chile	971	2	16
15	Mexico	968	2	21
15	Switzerland	968	3	44
17	Egypt	967	-7	-102
18	USA	954	-4	-9
19	Uruguay	936	2	27
20	Cameroon	888	0	-26
21	Nigeria	879	-6	-77
22	Côte d'Ivoire	874	0	9
23	Australia	867	0	10
24	Ukraine	851	0	3
25	Czech Republic	843	0	15
26	Israel	821	1	-2
27	Slovenia	819	6	52
28	Ghana	818	-1	-5
29	Paraguay	815	0	9
30	Bulgaria	813	0	12
31	Slovakia	811	5	59
32	Algeria	804	-1	20
33	Denmark	799	-7	-28
34	Norway	798	-2	26
35	Honduras	776	-1	17
36	Romania	774	2	29
37	Ecuador	761	-2	8
38	Colombia	757	1	21
39	Republic of Ireland	748	-2	2
40	Northern Ireland	747	0	18
41	Turkey	739	1	11
42	Sweden	737	1	10
43	Gabon	706	1	0
44	Costa Rica	701	1	2
45	Scotland	681	1	16
46	Japan	672	-6	-57
47	Latvia	662	2	28
48	Hungary	645	4	30
49	Bosnia-Herzegovina	644	-1	-1
49	Venezuela	644	-2	-2
51	Burkina Faso	638	0	22
52	Finland	635	2	59
53	Korea Republic	616	-4	-18
54	Mali	595	-1	-3
55	Tunisia	587	0	14
56	Austria	567	5	44
57	Saudi Arabia	555	2	17
58	Bolivia	546	-3	-27
59	Poland	540	-2	-27
60	Lithuania	530	2	8
61	Canada	512	-4	-55
62	Peru	510	6	39
63	Bahrain	507	-3	-23
64	FYR Macedonia	506	0	11
65	Benin	503	2	20
66	Cyprus	495	2	24
67	Iran	493	-4	-6
68	Belgium	490	-2	-1
69	Togo	483	1	15
70	Morocco	482	-5	-10
71	Montenegro	456	1	0
72	El Salvador	452	-1	-11
73	Zambia	449	0	0
74	Uganda	447	0	0
75	Uzbekistan	442	0	11
76	Wales	421	0	1
77	Jamaica	407	1	4
78	Panama	402	-1	-4
79	Belarus	400	1	3
80	New Zealand	398	-1	-2
81	South Africa	391	0	0
82	Malawi	388	0	4
83	China PR	385	4	12
84	Mozambique	382	-2	-2
85	Trinidad and Tobago	380	-1	-2
86	Angola	379	2	8
87	Iraq	373	-1	-2
88	Kuwait	368	4	10
89	Guinea	367	1	6
90	Haiti	363	5	16
91	Iceland	355	3	6
92	Qatar	354	-3	-16
93	Oman	351	0	-1
94	Senegal	347	-3	-12
95	Gambia	344	3	11
96	Albania	335	1	-1
97	Estonia	332	7	17
98	Cape Verde Islands	331	2	0
99	Moldova	330	-3	-8
100	Thailand	329	-2	-4
101	Syria	325	-1	-6
102	Armenia	320	0	-1
102	Congo	320	1	0
104	Korea DPR	318	-19	-60
105	Rwanda	282	2	7
106	Jordan	270	0	-6
107	Yemen	267	-2	-27
108	Tanzania	264	0	-2
109	Azerbaijan	252	5	16
110	Sudan	251	-1	0
111	Namibia	249	-2	-2
112	Congo DR	248	-1	0
113	Kenya	244	-1	0
114	Vietnam	231	2	0
115	United Arab Emirates	230	-2	-11
116	Libya	227	-1	-6
117	Zimbabwe	224	0	-5
118	Faroe Islands	223	0	1
119	Botswana	218	0	-1
120	Guyana	205	6	19
120	Singapore	205	0	-12
122	Ethiopia	204	-1	0
123	Antigua and Barbuda	203	4	19
124	Cuba	200	1	9
124	Georgia	200	-2	-2
126	Luxembourg	196	-2	1
127	Kazakhstan	191	-4	-10
128	Guatemala	174	3	10
129	Fiji	167	0	0
130	India	164	0	-2
131	Grenada	163	2	5
132	Swaziland	161	6	9
133	Sierra Leone	159	-1	0
134	Bermuda	156	1	0
134	Turkmenistan	156	0	-1
136	Indonesia	155	0	0
136	Tajikistan	155	12	32
138	Equatorial Guinea	151	0	-1
139	Myanmar	147	2	3
140	Maldives	146	0	0
141	Barbados	136	-13	-35
142	Hong Kong	134	-5	-19
143	Suriname	133	-1	0
144	Chad	132	-1	2
145	New Caledonia	126	1	0
146	Burundi	123	1	-1
147	Lesotho	120	2	0
148	Lebanon	116	-3	-11
148	Malta	116	-4	-13
150	Liechtenstein	112	3	2
150	Nepal	112	2	0
152	Sri Lanka	111	-1	-4
152	St. Kitts and Nevis	111	3	5
154	Vanuatu	108	0	0
155	Pakistan	107	1	2
156	Madagascar	105	0	0
157	Bangladesh	102	-7	-15
158	Nicaragua	101	4	9
159	Liberia	98	1	0
160	Malaysia	97	-1	-3
161	Kyrgyzstan	95	-3	-8
162	Chinese Taipei	93	0	1
162	Mauritania	93	-1	0
164	Eritrea	92	-2	0
164	Niger	92	-2	0
166	Netherlands Antilles	90	3	10
167	Puerto Rico	89	-1	0
168	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	86	0	4
169	Philippines	85	-2	0
170	Mongolia	61	0	0
171	Solomon Islands	60	0	0
172	Cambodia	56	1	0
173	Palestine	48	-1	-9
174	Bahamas	44	2	1
174	Seychelles	44	1	0
176	Comoros	43	0	0
177	Mauritius	40	1	0
178	Cayman Islands	39	1	0
178	Laos	39	1	0
178	Somalia	39	1	0
181	Samoa	38	1	0
182	Belize	34	4	1
182	Cook Islands	34	2	0
182	Guam	34	2	0
185	Dominica	33	-3	-5
186	St. Lucia	32	1	0
186	Turks and Caicos Islands	32	-12	-13
188	Macau	31	0	0
189	Tonga	28	0	0
190	Dominican Republic	26	0	0
191	British Virgin Islands	25	0	0
191	Brunei Darussalam	25	0	0
193	Djibouti	23	0	0
194	Afghanistan	20	0	0
195	Guinea-Bissau	19	0	0
195	Tahiti	19	0	0
197	Bhutan	17	0	0
198	Aruba	11	0	0
199	US Virgin Islands	9	0	1
200	Central African Republic	4	0	0
200	Timor-Leste	4	0	0
202	Andorra	3	0	0
203	American Samoa	0	0	0
203	Anguilla	0	0	0
203	Montserrat	0	0	0
203	Papua New Guinea	0	0	0
203	San Marino	0	0	0

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About me:

Christian, husband, father x 3, programmer, Romanian. Started the blog in March 2007. Quit in April 2018. You can find me on LinkedIn.

FIFA Ranking: Spain set to lose top spot

As I already explained last November, Spain will lose their place at the top of the ranking. It will happen either on March 31st or on April 28th, but we'll know exactly on March 3rd.

Brazil need to better against the Republic of Ireland than Spain do against France.

Here are the possible outcomes for Spain and Brazil, depending on their results on March 3rd (and 2nd):

Spain (L - 1563, D - 1576, W - 1602)
Brazil (L - 1559, D - 1569, W - 1589)

If Spain lose against France, Brazil need to get at least a draw against the Republic of Ireland.
If Spain get a point against France, Brazil need three in their match.
If Spain defeat France, they will keep their spot at the top of the rankings.

Since Brazil and Spain don't have other matches before March 31st, we'll know the outcome on March 3rd.

Even if Spain keep their top spot, Brazil will surely overtake them on April 28th.

Spain's total in April with a win against France: 1565 points.
Brazil's total in April with a loss against the Republic of Ireland: 1579 points.

Will that make Brazil a World Cup favorite for Iker Casillas?

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About me:

Christian, husband, father x 3, programmer, Romanian. Started the blog in March 2007. Quit in April 2018. You can find me on LinkedIn.

African Cup of Nations 2012: Seeding and draw

CAF changed the seeding criteria and it did an actual draw, so all my work was basically in vain :)

Full details on the draw on CAFOnline.com.

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About me:

Christian, husband, father x 3, programmer, Romanian. Started the blog in March 2007. Quit in April 2018. You can find me on LinkedIn.

Is it too much to ask?

As you can see in the header section of this site, there a line of text - 18 words.

You are free to use data from this website as long as you include a link to Football-Rankings.info.

Pretty easy to understand. Probably not for Bonnie Mugabe of Rwanda's New Times. Mr. Mugabe copied data from this website and completely forgot to mention the source.

This is the New Times article:

2012 CAN seedings out

and this is my post:

African Cup of Nations: Seeding for Gabon/Equatorial Guinea 2012 qualifiers

Not only did he copy info from my website, but he chose the wrong post. The updated info can be found here:

African Cup of Nations: Seeding for Gabon/Equatorial Guinea 2012 qualifiers (1 February 2010)

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About me:

Christian, husband, father x 3, programmer, Romanian. Started the blog in March 2007. Quit in April 2018. You can find me on LinkedIn.

FIFA Ranking: February 2010 preview (II)

Point totals for teams from the top 20 of the October 2007 ranking should be 100% correct. For the others, there's the issue of historical rankings published before July 2006.

Included: matches up to and including February 14th, 2010.

The February ranking will actually be published on March 3rd, but since it's the second ranking of the year...

Next update: February 26th, 2010.

Five friendlies and the 2010 AFC Challenge Cup still to be played. All matches will be considered friendlies for FIFA ranking purposes.

India will send their U-23 team to the AFC Challenge Cup. Thus, their matches won't count for the FIFA ranking.

In January, Denmark won the 2010 King's Cup using a Denmark League XI team. Those matches were obviously not included in the last release of the FIFA ranking. However, all three matches (3 - 1 vs. Poland, 5 - 1 vs. Singapore and 3 - 0 vs. Thailand) will be included in this release. Bad news for all four teams involved, as Denmark will lose 47 points, Poland 13, Thailand 22 and Singapore 10.

Since India will use their U-23 team, I can't use the Elo Ratings to compute probable results, so the table you'll see below lists the minimum possible value for all teams that still have to play games. A short reminder of those games:

19/Feb Kuwait - Syria
24/Feb Kuwait - Bahrain
24/Feb Mexico - Bolivia
24/Feb USA - El Salvador
25/Feb Jordan - Azerbaijan

Korea DPR, Turkmenistan, Myanmar, Tajikistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Kyrgyzstan are involved in the AFC Challenge Cup.

These 16 teams can still improve their totals. The values listed for the other 191 teams are final.

February 2010 rank - Team - February 2010 points - +/- Ranking - +/- Points

1	Spain	1642	0	15
2	Brazil	1594	0	26
3	Netherlands	1324	0	36
4	Italy	1226	0	17
5	Germany	1208	1	35
6	Portugal	1201	-1	25
7	France	1171	0	54
8	England	1109	1	33
9	Argentina	1087	-1	5
10	Greece	1074	2	44
11	Croatia	1050	0	-3
12	Russia	1042	1	16
13	Serbia	980	6	64
14	Chile	971	2	16
15	Switzerland	968	3	44
16	Egypt	967	-6	-102
17	Mexico	947	0	0
18	USA	940	-4	-23
19	Uruguay	936	2	27
20	Cameroon	888	0	-26
21	Nigeria	879	-6	-77
22	Côte d'Ivoire	874	0	9
23	Australia	867	0	10
24	Ukraine	851	0	3
25	Czech Republic	843	0	15
26	Israel	821	1	-2
27	Slovenia	819	6	52
28	Ghana	818	-1	-5
29	Paraguay	815	0	9
30	Bulgaria	813	0	12
31	Slovakia	811	5	59
32	Algeria	804	-1	20
33	Denmark	799	-7	-28
34	Norway	798	-2	26
35	Honduras	776	-1	17
36	Romania	774	2	29
37	Ecuador	761	-2	8
38	Colombia	757	1	21
39	Republic of Ireland	748	-2	2
40	Northern Ireland	747	0	18
41	Turkey	739	1	11
42	Sweden	737	1	10
43	Gabon	706	1	0
44	Costa Rica	701	1	2
45	Scotland	681	1	16
46	Japan	672	-6	-57
47	Latvia	662	2	28
48	Hungary	645	4	30
49	Bosnia-Herzegovina	644	-1	-1
49	Venezuela	644	-2	-2
51	Burkina Faso	638	0	22
52	Finland	635	2	59
53	Korea Republic	616	-4	-18
54	Mali	595	-1	-3
55	Tunisia	587	0	14
56	Austria	567	5	44
57	Saudi Arabia	555	2	17
58	Bolivia	546	-3	-27
59	Poland	540	-2	-27
60	Lithuania	530	2	8
61	Canada	512	-4	-55
62	Peru	510	6	39
63	Bahrain	507	-3	-23
64	FYR Macedonia	506	0	11
65	Benin	503	2	20
66	Cyprus	495	2	24
67	Iran	493	-4	-6
68	Belgium	490	-2	-1
69	Togo	483	1	15
70	Morocco	482	-5	-10
71	Montenegro	456	1	0
72	El Salvador	452	-1	-11
73	Zambia	449	0	0
74	Uganda	447	0	0
75	Uzbekistan	442	0	11
76	Wales	421	0	1
77	Jamaica	407	1	4
78	Panama	402	-1	-4
79	Belarus	400	1	3
80	New Zealand	398	-1	-2
81	South Africa	391	0	0
82	Malawi	388	0	4
83	China PR	385	4	12
84	Mozambique	382	-2	-2
85	Trinidad and Tobago	380	-1	-2
86	Angola	379	2	8
87	Iraq	373	-1	-2
88	Guinea	367	2	6
89	Haiti	363	6	16
90	Iceland	355	4	6
91	Qatar	354	-2	-16
92	Oman	351	1	-1
93	Senegal	347	-2	-12
94	Gambia	344	4	11
95	Kuwait	336	-3	-22
96	Albania	335	1	-1
97	Estonia	332	7	17
98	Cape Verde Islands	331	2	0
99	Moldova	330	-3	-8
100	Thailand	329	-2	-4
101	Armenia	320	1	-1
101	Congo	320	2	0
103	Syria	319	-3	-12
104	Korea DPR	317	-19	-61
105	Yemen	290	0	-4
106	Rwanda	282	1	7
107	Jordan	270	-1	-6
108	Tanzania	264	0	-2
109	Sudan	251	0	0
110	Namibia	249	-1	-2
111	Congo DR	248	0	0
112	Kenya	244	0	0
113	Vietnam	231	3	0
114	Azerbaijan	230	0	-6
114	United Arab Emirates	230	-1	-11
116	Libya	227	-1	-6
117	Zimbabwe	224	0	-5
118	Faroe Islands	222	0	0
119	Botswana	218	0	-1
120	Guyana	205	6	19
120	Singapore	205	0	-12
122	Ethiopia	204	-1	0
123	Antigua and Barbuda	203	4	19
124	Cuba	200	1	9
124	Georgia	200	-2	-2
126	Luxembourg	196	-2	1
127	Kazakhstan	191	-4	-10
128	Guatemala	174	3	10
129	Fiji	167	0	0
130	India	164	0	-2
131	Grenada	163	2	5
132	Swaziland	161	6	9
133	Sierra Leone	159	-1	0
134	Bermuda	156	1	0
135	Indonesia	155	1	0
136	Equatorial Guinea	151	2	-1
137	Maldives	146	3	0
138	Barbados	136	-10	-35
139	Hong Kong	134	-2	-19
140	Suriname	133	2	0
141	Chad	132	2	2
142	Myanmar	131	-1	-13
143	Turkmenistan	128	-9	-29
144	New Caledonia	126	2	0
145	Tajikistan	125	3	2
146	Burundi	123	1	-1
147	Lesotho	120	2	0
148	Lebanon	116	-3	-11
148	Malta	116	-4	-13
150	Liechtenstein	112	3	2
150	Nepal	112	2	0
152	St. Kitts and Nevis	111	3	5
153	Vanuatu	108	1	0
154	Pakistan	107	2	2
155	Madagascar	105	1	0
156	Sri Lanka	103	-5	-12
157	Malaysia	102	2	2
158	Nicaragua	101	4	9
159	Liberia	98	1	0
160	Kyrgyzstan	95	-2	-8
161	Chinese Taipei	93	1	1
161	Mauritania	93	0	0
163	Eritrea	92	-1	0
163	Niger	92	-1	0
165	Netherlands Antilles	90	4	10
166	Puerto Rico	89	0	0
167	Bangladesh	88	-17	-29
168	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	86	0	4
169	Philippines	85	-2	0
170	Mongolia	61	0	0
171	Solomon Islands	60	0	0
172	Cambodia	56	1	0
173	Palestine	48	-1	-9
174	Seychelles	44	1	0
175	Bahamas	43	1	0
175	Comoros	43	1	0
177	Mauritius	40	1	0
178	Cayman Islands	39	1	0
178	Laos	39	1	0
178	Somalia	39	1	0
181	Samoa	38	1	0
182	Belize	34	4	1
182	Cook Islands	34	2	0
182	Guam	34	2	0
185	Dominica	33	-3	-5
186	St. Lucia	32	1	0
186	Turks and Caicos Islands	32	-12	-13
188	Macau	31	0	0
189	Tonga	28	0	0
190	Dominican Republic	26	0	0
191	British Virgin Islands	25	0	0
191	Brunei Darussalam	25	0	0
193	Djibouti	23	0	0
194	Afghanistan	20	0	0
195	Guinea-Bissau	19	0	0
195	Tahiti	19	0	0
197	Bhutan	17	0	0
198	Aruba	11	0	0
199	US Virgin Islands	8	0	0
200	Central African Republic	4	0	0
200	Timor-Leste	4	0	0
202	Andorra	3	0	0
203	American Samoa	0	0	0
203	Anguilla	0	0	0
203	Montserrat	0	0	0
203	Papua New Guinea	0	0	0
203	San Marino	0	0	0

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About me:

Christian, husband, father x 3, programmer, Romanian. Started the blog in March 2007. Quit in April 2018. You can find me on LinkedIn.