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Friday, September 30, 2011

FIFA admit mistake, update ranking

I wrote last week about the problems I found in the September edition of the FIFA rankings.

I also e-mailed FIFA about it and even tweeted to @fifamedia about it.

They've replied on Monday:


Thank you for your email and notification of a possible error in the World Ranking. We have reviewed the calculation and confirmed that there was a mistake. We will therefore issue a new ranking this week on fifa.com including the matches played on 19th and 20th  August and also the two forfeit wins of Tadjikistan against Syria. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Kind regards

*****

Communications & Public Affairs Division
FIFA – Fédération Internationale de Football Association www.FIFA.com   
52 teams were affected. These are the changes (compared to the first September ranking):

Climbing:

33 - Tajikistan
7 - Lesotho
2 - Bahrain, Cuba and Iraq
1 - Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Antigua and Barbuda, Oman, Iceland, Guatemala, Comoros, Kyrgyzstan and Solomon Islands

Dropping:

-8 - Syria
-4 - Dominican Republic
-3 - Qatar
-1 - Gambia, Faroe Islands, Tanzania, Liberia, Congo DR, Vietnam, Kenya, Kazakhstan, Ethiopia, Belize, Nepal, Burundi, Turkmenistan, Rwanda, Congo, Puerto Rico, Lebanon, Fiji, Malaysia, Dominica, Barbados, US Virgin Islands, Bahamas, Equatorial Guinea, Malta, New Caledonia, Hong Kong, Nicaragua, Chad, Palestine, Guinea-Bissau, India, Mongolia, Maldives and Philippines

Point differences:

133 - Tajikistan
9 - Lesotho
4 - Iraq
1 - Swaziland
-4 - Curaçao
-6 - Sudan
-7 - Dominican Republic
-10 - Qatar
-45 - Syria


That's why I posted a new preview and probable ranking for October.

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.

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9 comments:

  1. EdSeptember 30, 2011 at 11:33 AM

    Hey Edgar,

    Well done! This must be satisfying work !

    Although, in my humble opinion, the Tajikistan-correction is not the right way to deal with awarded games and the matchpoints assigned with it.
    This distorts Tajikistan's true strength considerably. I would go for a points assignment based on the original result or, if that's achieved in a really fraudulent way, at least annul the whole match.
    But hey, who am I ?

    ReplyDelete
  2. EdgarSeptember 30, 2011 at 12:14 PM

    @Ed

    Thanks! This is not work - it's a hobby :)

    I agree - I would have kept the result.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AshotOctober 4, 2011 at 2:43 PM

    also FIFA guys don't know that Tajikistan is written without "D"

    ReplyDelete
  4. LusankyaOctober 6, 2011 at 6:59 PM

    FIFA.com now features an "interactive" ranking.

    http://www.fifa.com/worldranking/news/newsid=1521554/index.html

    You can see the points from the most recent matches, the matches which don't count anymore and you can calculate the ranking for the next month.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Soccer-DB.infoOctober 6, 2011 at 7:48 PM

    The interactive ranking is perfect. Exactly what I requested before.

    ReplyDelete
  6. AlexOctober 6, 2011 at 10:24 PM

    Yes, credit where credit is due: The new features are excellent. Hopefully this will be a big step to help the public better understand how the ranking works, and that the numbers are accountable and computable, not arbitrary.

    ReplyDelete
  7. EdgarOctober 7, 2011 at 10:11 AM

    Finally - they promised such a tool 5 years ago - in July 2006.

    This also means my blog will sort of lose its purpose :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. AmirOctober 7, 2011 at 11:33 AM

    Not the blog - just some of the FIFA Ranking updates...
    You still have great posts, including simutations and other stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  9. AmirOctober 7, 2011 at 11:42 AM

    I would have liked to also see full points breakdown, but that will do...

    ReplyDelete