FIFA Rankings
After an issue laden World Cup, you’d think FIFA would keep quiet. Instead, FIFA released its newest and probebly most controversial rankings on the 12th of July 2006. Here is a quick run down and then I’ll pass a few comments.
The new top ten are: 1. Brazil, 2. Italy, 3. Argentina, 4. France, 5. England, 6. Netherlands, 7. Spain, 8. Portugal, 9. Germany, 10. Czech Republic.
Other positions of note are: 11. Nigeria, 12. Cameroon, 14. Uruguay, 16. USA, 18. Mexico, 22. Sweden, 23. Croatia, 25. Ghana, 32. Greece, 33. Australia, 36. Serbia and Montenegro, 49. Japan
OK. So here are my comments on this ranking farce:
- How can Germany be ranked 4 places lower than England?
- How can Nigeria and Cameroon sit in 11th and 12th when they weren’t even in the World Cup?
- The USA droped from 5th to 16th but are they better than Mexico in 18th? It took probebly the goal of the World Cup by Argentina to beat the Mexicans in overtime.
- How can Sweden be ranked at 22nd?
- How can Uruguay be ranked 14th, when they didn’t qualify for the World Cup and were beaten by Australia?
- Australia ranked in 33rd is very harsh. Making the final 16 should have moved them to at least 20-25. They almost beat 2nd ranked Italy.
- Serbia and Montenegro is ranked at 36th and moved up the ladder despite being flogged in the World Cup
- Japan is ranked 49th and moved down so many places, yet played well against Brazil and Australia
- At least Ghana moved up the ranks and deserved there place.
I am starting to believe FIFA stands for Farcical International Football Association. There should be calls for the whole body to be investigated, especially after the huge number of black market tickets at the World Cup, of which FIFA promised would be reduced greatly. The state of the current World Cup and the scandals should have been enough to spark some form of action.