Are FIFA rankings accurate?
474135
I don't think so, because you will never get every team to play every other team. Some countries play 1-2 internationals per year.\n\nIt is a relative ranking system. Thats why sometimes a team ranked 100 might beat a team ranked 20.
664778
FIFA World Rankings\nFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia\nJump to: navigation, search\nThe FIFA World Rankings were introduced in August 1993 to make it possible to publish comparisons of the relative strengths of internationally active teams at regular intervals.\n\nThe rankings obtained are, unsurprisingly, the subject of considerable debate, in particular, the relatively high position of the USA. They are based on performances over an eight year period, which means that teams with consistent good performances are highly ranked, but on the other hand the rankings are fairly slow to respond significantly to changes in form. A number of alternative systems have been devised, such as the World Football Elo Ratings, based on the Elo rating system used in chess. The UFWC (Unofficial Football World Championships) ranks teams on an all-time basis.\n\nInterestingly, FIFA does not use the same formula to determine its rankings for women's football. The women's rankings are based on a procedure which is a simplified version of the Football Elo Ratings. [1]
487562
I put FIFA's rankings on par with "American Idol" voting.\n\nA waste of time and highly un-informative.
1167302
Brazil head the FIFA world rankings followed by all other countries like Czech Republic, Mexico, USA, Portugual etc
1187061
Course the high ranking given to them by FIFA... and why not? anything is possible.
1131330
Pretty far, actually. According to FIFA, they are #2 in the world's rankings after Brazil. I'd say if they keep doing well, they've got a real chance for the cup.
1105830
The China bit is mistaken. FIFA's 28.8 billion is a collective figure counting all the games watched during the month-long tournament.
611287
The Fifa rankings are trash, they are only determined by how many games a country plays, not by their skill. For example if the system restarted; if the US played Latvia and Morocco and beat them each 6-0 and Brazil played Holland and the Czech Republic and tied holland and beat the Czech republic it doesnt matter that Brazil played better teams, the US would still be ranked number 1 in the world. \n\nThe Czech have a very solid player in every part of the field. The have a solid attack and such a fantastic goalie (petr Cech) that I would not be suprised if the had many clean sheets.\n\nI give them a 35% odd if reaching the finals.
1039467
All of the people who answered before me are wrong in some respect...either not providing a complete answer or just being wrong.\nAccording to the FIFA World Cup Regulations manual, Article 31 states that:\n"The ranking of each team in each group will be determined as\nfollows:\na) greatest number of points obtained in all group matches;\nb) goal difference in all group matches;\nc) greatest number of goals scored in all group matches.\nIf two or more teams are equal on the basis of the above three criteria,their rankings will be determined as follows:\nd) greatest number of points obtained in the group matches between\nthe teams concerned;\ne) goal difference resulting from the group matches between the\nteams concerned;\nf) greater number of goals scored in all group matches between the\nteams concerned;\ng) drawing of lots by the Organising Committee for the FIFA World\nCup™."\nIf needbe check my source for confirmation, see page 40 - 41.
1019730
The rankings goes like this ( I'm talking in general not this group)\n1- greatest number of points obtained in all group matches. (obvious)\n2- goal difference in all group matches.\n3- greatest number of goals scored in all group matches.\n\nIF two or more teams are equal on the basis of the above then we go to the following:\n\na) greatest number of points obtained in the group matches between\nthe teams concerned;\nb) goal difference resulting from the group matches between the\nteams concerned;\nc) greater number of goals scored in all group matches between the\nteams concerned;\nd) drawing of lots by the Organising Committee for the FIFA World Cup
1116065
Official rankings, including points, straight from the official web site:\nhttp://www.fifa.com/en/mens/statistics/index/0,2548,All-Jul-2005,00.html
674790
Hey! u forget that! Iran in fifa ranking is in the 22th place while Angola is in the 58th! also Iran has the best players in Bondesliga, such as;\nAli Karimi >>> FC BaYern MunchenEV ( he is the best player of the year 2004!)\nMehdi Mahdavikia >>> Hamburg\nRahman Rezai >>> Messina Italy\nVahid Hashemian >>> Hanover\nFereYdun Zandi >>> Kaiserslaturn and More...\n\nAlso it has Ali Daie! \n It is very difficult for Mexico and Portugal to go over the group!
307182
they are definitely not the 4th best soccer nation in the world. the ranking has never been so far from the actual quality of soccer' nation for as long as I have been following it (about 10 years!), they really need to fix it for it to reflect better the actual ranking in between nations or just stop with this non sense that they call ranking, teams don't even play against the same quality of opponents to start with so................
1026438
One the one hand, one has always to remember that refs are only human beings, too, which happen to make mistakes. \nOne the other hand, the FIFA sometimes ranks football only 2nd in importance. In the Council for refrees at the FIFA, football powers like Vunau or Easttimor have more votes than the countries where football is celebrated at the highest level. Why? Because the FIFA (or let's say Blatter) needed the votes of these countries for his re-election... \nBut things have improved: In contrast to the last WC,  the FIFA has decided to let the teams of refs play who usually play together in the Leagues... So they talk the same language and know each other.
380608
It has nothing to do with a grading system.  It is an advertising campaign by Adidas.  Their players are supposed to name the ten players they most admire.\n\nThey are basically placing themselves in their personal dream team and selecting the other ten players.  Riquelme + the other ten players comprising his dream team.
1177504
FIFA = Fédération Internationale de Football Association
377800
This question is tricky as most of those teams have not participated neither had a good position on the FIFA ranking so it Will make you answer the US. But I consider it will be equal comparison if you make the same question comparing top 20 teams in the FIFA ranking.