The first women’s international window of the year has been completed and that has shaken the FIFA Ranking. A total of 146 matches were played, of which 127 counted for the ranking: 50 in the UEFA Nations League, 28 in the qualifiers for the Africa Cup of Nations and 49 friendlies.
As a reminder, here’s an explanation on how the formula works, although, as usual, FIFA is not clear about certain aspects, which we will cover here.
Positions 1 – 60
Japan climb three places mainly for their win over the United States in the She Believes Cup, which gives them 18 points. On the other hand, the North American side retain the first place but at the expense of losing points. The good news for them is that Spain lost in their visit to Wembley and thus the gap doesn’t close up by much.
Australia are still in crisis and drop one place, which puts them on the limit between pots 2 and 3 for the World Cup draw. Since last year, The Matildas have struggled against strong opponents: at the Olympics they lost to Germany (3-0) and the USA, then lost a couples of friendlies at home to Brazil. Now, in this She Believes Cup, lost all three matches, including a 4-0 trashing from Japan.
Mexico had a good run at the Pinatar Cup, where they beat Taipei and China, and only lost to Canada, which to be fair was a logical result. With that, El Tri get 12 points and climb two places.
Overall, European teams didn’t gain or lose many points because FIFA treated the Nations League as a friendly / minor tournament. In the rules, FIFA doesn’t have a category for these matches because they wrote this formula 22 years ago, when this tournament didn’t exist, and hasn’t bothered to update it.
In the previous edition of this tournament, teams in League A played for a spot at the Olympics and thus FIFA treated those matches as such. However, Leagues B and C didn’t have access to the Olympics and FIFA treated them as friendlies / minor tournament. The current edition grants no tickets for a tournament and that´s probably why FIFA gives it a value of 15.
Positions 61 – 120
Here, Uruguay are unlucky. Their two wins away to Paraguay would have given them 18 points, but those matches were excluded from the table. FIFA is never clear about their criteria for inclusion, but the most common reasons are that the match was considered informal or unofficial, they made more substitutions than it is allowed, or the referee doesn’t have a international badge.
Among the Latin American teams, Puerto Rico gained 16 points and climb four places due to their historic wins over Estonia and Iran, as this is the first time they beat European and Asian teams. Elsewhere, El Salvador take eight points and climb five places after beating Ecuador in Quito.
In Africa we had the first round of the Africa Cup of Nations qualification. Since this tournament also grants qualification for the World Cup, these matches are considered “World Cup qualifiers” by FIFA, which makes them more valuable, as more points can be gained or lost.
Tunisia and Equatorial Guinea drew and lost to opponents low in the table, which cost them more than 40 points each and sink them 11 and 8 places, respectively. The Tunisians are severely punished for losing at home to Kenya. Egypt drew at home with Rwanda and drop eight places.
Positions 121 – 180
In this ranking, one team’s gain is another team’s loss, and thus Kenya and Tanzania obtained more than 40 points by beating the already mentioned Tunisia and Equatorial Guinea respectively, and leap forward seven places. Benin also got 38 points by winning both matches against Sierra Leone.
Gambia, Cyprus, Malawi, Rwanda y Saudi Arabia all collected good points with their good results this window.
Positions 181 – 196
Here, the great news is that Djibouti are now officially ranked, appearing in 195th place. However, FIFA is not clear about how they handle the initial points of a team.
Next update: June 12.
Header image: Tanzanian Football Federation on Twitter.
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