The October international window comes to an end and we’ll walk through all the details in the FIFA Ranking explaining all the major movements.
Positions 1-60
Spain keep the lead and extend the gap after beating Sweden in the two legs of their Nations League semifinal, which gives them 30 points. Here, since one team’s gain is another team’s loss, Sweden lose those points and drop to 6th. Elsewhere, the United States lose ground in their quest for the lead following their loss at home to Portugal.
Other teams who move up are Germany due to their win and draw with France, and Brazil, after wins over England and Italy.
Since it’s never too early to think about the World Cup, Iceland move momentarily into Pot 2 zone for two reasons: 1) they beat Northern Ireland in their two Nations League play-off games, and 2) China didn’t play and thus their point remain unchanged.
Similarly, Nigeria qualified to the Africa Cup of Nations by beating Benin over two legs, but the draw in the return leg cost them nearly 22 points. Due to the huge difference in points between them and the home field advantage, the formula expected Nigeria to win by at least a six-goal difference, but since they only managed a draw, the formula penalises them. Thus, the Super Eagles lose one place and drop from Pot 3 to 4.
In a particular case, Colombia won their two World Cup qualifying matches against Peru 4-1 and Ecuador 2-1 but lost points in both. Here, the formula expected them to win by at least five and two goals respectively, but lose points because they didn’t deliver those results.
Staying in South America, Venezuela beat Paraguay away in the qualifiers which gives them 24 points.
One of the most common complaints about this ranking is that it favours European teams. Since they play more official matches (between Nations League, Euros qualifiers and World Cup qualifiers) they can get more points and thus climb more positions, making it more difficult for teams from other confederations to keep the pace. With the creation of proper World Cup qualifiers in Conmebol, South American teams will gain and lose more points and therefore will move more easily in the table. Seeing that Colombia currently sit 18th, this new format may give them a chance to fight for a spot in Pot 2.
Mexico beat New Zealand in two friendlies to get 6 points.
Positions 61-120
In this part of the table there are many African teams an we can see the effect of the Africa Cup of Nation’s qualifiers. Due to the importance of these matches, lots of points are gained and lost. For example, Algeria gained 43 points for beating Cameroon in both matches: 16 at home and 27 on the road, which illustrates how valuable it is to win away from home. To the formula, a win away is more valuable than at home.
And what happens when you win scoring many goals against a team much higher than you in the table in an important match away? You get massive points: Cape Verde got almost 34 points for hammering Mali 4-2 on the road.
Elsewhere, Latvia won the Baltic Cup with wins over Estonia and Lithuania away, which gives 15 points to climb nine positions.
We also had the South East Asian Championship (ASEAN Championship in the table). Since this is a minor tournament, FIFA treats these matches with the same value as friendlies (I=15 in the formula). However, here I am not considering Australia’s matches because they sent an U-20 team, so in theory those shouldn’t count.
Positions 121-180
In this part of the table there are fewer movements because not everyone played, but as we can see, the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers produced big changes: Burkina Faso (+13), Tanzania (+9) y Kenya (+8) gained lots of places, while Togo (-13), Gambia (-12) y Ethiopia (-10) tumble down the order.
In the Caribbean, we had the Winward Islands Tournament, contested by Saint Vincent, Saint Lucia, Barbados and Dominica, which was won by Barbados. However, I’m not sure if FIFA will include these because there was only one day of rest between matchdays.
Positions 181-196
In the lower end of the table, only Andorra and Gibraltar played.
Chad, Afghanistan and Libya played a couple of friendlies, but since they do not yet appear in the table those matches don’t count. As far as I know, teams must play a minimum of five matches against ranked teams to be included.
Last but not least, the Central American Games took place, where Costa Rica took the gold medal. However, it’s unlikely that these games will count for the ranking, as previous editions of these type of tournaments (Central American and Caribbean Games, and Panamerican Games) did not count.
The next window will be in late November-early December. Unlike the men’s ranking, which is updated after each window, the women’s will be officially updated in December.
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