When do u guys think a team outside of Europe or S. America will finish top 4 in a WC?

VivaStPauli wrote:Ivory Coast at 15, currently.

I'm seeing IC at 16th, with France at a surprising 15th. And England 5th????
How is it that the FIFA ratings work? How many points are a win and whatnot???

EDIT: I DIDN'T READ OP FULLY IGNORE ME.

http://www.fifa.com/worldranking/rankingtable/index.html?intcmp=fifacom_hp_module_ranking

IC 15, France 16.

They work by simple maths, that's why they don't measure a team's quality at all. It's just a simple key, that I'm too lazy to google, but basically winning against a team gives you more points the higher they are in the ranking, and if you draw, the lowe-ranked team gains points, the higher-ranked one loses points.

It tends to overrate medium-weights if they have a decent run quite a lot, as the rankings of Portugal and England will hint at.


So they're nothing more than a very rough pointer of how well a team played the past couple months, it doesn't tell you much about potential, strength, quality or anything like that.