FIFA Ranking: Greatest upsets (28 November 2014)

About three years ago, I've updated the greatest upsets list. Since then, I kind of forgot about them until the Faroe Islands pulled off a shocking win in Greece. A question in the Guardian prompted a deep dive in my database. I've sent them the results and John Ashdown suggested I should publish them here. Thanks for mentioning my blog, John!


The only result to come close to the Greece - Faroe Islands is a 1996 friendly between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Italy 2:1. The former Yugoslav country was 170, while Italy were 5th. Thus a gap of 165 spots. This is actually the only time they've played each other.

Now, taking into account only competitive matches.

Columns are pretty straightforward to understand.

This is the top 10, based on FIFA ranking differences.

2014-11-14	CQ	Greece	Faroe Islands	0:1 (0:0)	18	187	169
2010-10-10	CQ	Niger	Egypt	1:0 (1:0)	154	9	145
2010-10-10	CQ	Central African Republic	Algeria	2:0 (0:0)	172	35	137
2003-06-07	CQ	Seychelles	Zimbabwe	2:1 (0:0)	187	55	132
2003-11-14	WQ	Mauritania	Zimbabwe	2:1 (2:0)	176	48	128
1994-11-13	CQ	Lesotho	Cameroon	2:0 (0:0)	151	29	122
2014-09-09	CQ	Bosnia-Herzegovina	Cyprus	1:2 (1:1)	19	140	121
2007-03-24	CQ	Kazakhstan	Serbia	2:1 (0:0)	143	28	115
2011-11-15	WQ	Lebanon	Korea Republic	2:1 (2:1)	146	31	115
1997-08-20	WQ	Bosnia-Herzegovina	Denmark	3:0 (3:0)	117	3	114

 
Restricting the field to top 50 nations on the receiving end of the shock:

2014-11-14	CQ	Greece	Faroe Islands	0:1 (0:0)	18	187	169
2010-10-10	CQ	Niger	Egypt	1:0 (1:0)	154	9	145
2010-10-10	CQ	Central African Republic	Algeria	2:0 (0:0)	172	35	137
2003-11-14	WQ	Mauritania	Zimbabwe	2:1 (2:0)	176	48	128
1994-11-13	CQ	Lesotho	Cameroon	2:0 (0:0)	151	29	122
2014-09-09	CQ	Bosnia-Herzegovina	Cyprus	1:2 (1:1)	19	140	121
2007-03-24	CQ	Kazakhstan	Serbia	2:1 (0:0)	143	28	115
2011-11-15	WQ	Lebanon	Korea Republic	2:1 (2:1)	146	31	115
1997-08-20	WQ	Bosnia-Herzegovina	Denmark	3:0 (3:0)	117	3	114
2007-06-06	CQ	Armenia	Poland	1:0 (0:0)	128	18	110

 
Top 20:

2014-11-14	CQ	Greece	Faroe Islands	0:1 (0:0)	18	187	169
2010-10-10	CQ	Niger	Egypt	1:0 (1:0)	154	9	145
2014-09-09	CQ	Bosnia-Herzegovina	Cyprus	1:2 (1:1)	19	140	121
1997-08-20	WQ	Bosnia-Herzegovina	Denmark	3:0 (3:0)	117	3	114
2007-06-06	CQ	Armenia	Poland	1:0 (0:0)	128	18	110
2005-09-07	WQ	Northern Ireland	England	1:0 (0:0)	116	7	109
2011-11-15	WQ	Korea DPR	Japan	1:0 (0:0)	124	17	107
1995-06-07	CQ	Belarus	Netherlands	1:0 (1:0)	113	7	106
2011-09-02	CQ	Wales	Montenegro	2:1 (1:0)	117	19	98
1996-11-10	WQ	Congo	Zambia	1:0 (0:0)	110	16	94

 
Top 10:

2010-10-10	CQ	Niger	Egypt	1:0 (1:0)	154	9	145
1997-08-20	WQ	Bosnia-Herzegovina	Denmark	3:0 (3:0)	117	3	114
2005-09-07	WQ	Northern Ireland	England	1:0 (0:0)	116	7	109
1995-06-07	CQ	Belarus	Netherlands	1:0 (1:0)	113	7	106
1995-07-06	CF	Mexico	Paraguay	1:2 (1:0)	7	100	93
2007-11-21	CQ	Belarus	Netherlands	2:1 (0:0)	94	7	87
2001-11-07	WQ	Bolivia	Brazil	3:1 (1:1)	81	2	79
2000-02-20	CF	Mexico	Canada	1:2 a.e.t. (1:1, 1:0)	10	85	75
2010-06-22	WC	France	South Africa	1:2 (0:2)	9	83	74
2013-06-07	WQ	Croatia	Scotland	0:1 (0:1)	4	74	70

And the biggest shocks involving the top team in the FIFA ranking at the time of the match:

2014-10-11	CQ	Poland	Germany	2:0 (0:0)	70	1	69
2001-06-01	CC	Australia	France	1:0 (0:0)	68	1	67
2009-10-11	WQ	Bolivia	Brazil	2:1 (2:0)	59	1	58
2001-03-28	WQ	Ecuador	Brazil	1:0 (0:0)	53	1	52
2004-11-17	WQ	Ecuador	Brazil	1:0 (0:0)	44	1	43
2002-05-31	WC	France	Senegal	0:1 (0:1)	1	42	41
1995-07-23	CF	Uruguay	Brazil	1:1 (0:1) 5:3 PSO	36	1	35
1994-07-10	WC	Bulgaria	Germany	2:1 (0:0)	29	1	28
2004-07-14	CF	Brazil	Paraguay	1:2 (1:1)	1	29	28
1998-02-10	CF	USA	Brazil	1:0 (0:0)	26	1	25

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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.