FIFA Men's World Ranking facts for kids
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| Top 20 rankings as of 7 February 2019 | |||
| Rank | Change | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
 Belgium |
1727 |
| 2 | |
 France |
1726 |
| 3 | |
 Brazil |
1676 |
| 4 | |
 Croatia |
1634 |
| 5 | |
 England |
1631 |
| 6 | |
 Portugal |
1614 |
| 7 | |
 Uruguay |
1609 |
| 8 | |
 Switzerland |
1599 |
| 9 | |
 Spain |
1591 |
| 10 | |
 Denmark |
1589 |
| 11 | |
 Argentina |
1582 |
| 12 | |
 Colombia |
1575 |
| 13 | |
 Chile |
1565 |
| 14 | |
 Sweden |
1560 |
| 14 | |
 Netherlands |
1560 |
| 16 | |
 Germany |
1558 |
| 17 | |
 Mexico |
1540 |
| 18 | |
 Italy |
1539 |
| 19 | |
 Wales |
1525 |
| 20 | |
 Poland |
1518 |
| 20 | |
 Peru |
1518 |
| *Change from 29 June 2023 | |||
| Complete rankings at FIFA.com | |||
The FIFA Men's World Ranking is a system that ranks men's national football teams. It helps us see which teams are performing best around the world. Argentina was at the top in April 2023.
Teams from all the countries that are members of FIFA (the world's football governing body) are ranked based on how well they play in games. The most successful teams get the highest ranks. This ranking system started in December 1992. So far, eight different teams have been ranked number one. These include Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain. Brazil has held the top spot for the longest time.
The rankings use a points system. Teams earn points based on the results of all international matches that FIFA officially recognizes. The way these points are calculated has changed several times. This happened because people sometimes felt the old methods didn't truly show how strong a team was. Since August 2018, the ranking system has used a method similar to the Elo rating system, which is also used in games like chess and Go.
The ranking is supported by Coca-Cola. That's why it's sometimes called the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. Coca-Cola also supports the women's rankings.
Contents
How the Rankings Started and Changed
In December 1992, FIFA first released a list showing the order of its men's national teams. This was to help compare how strong different teams were. From August 1993, this list was updated almost every month.
Big changes were made in January 1999 and again in July 2006. These changes happened because people criticized the old system. The historical records of the rankings on FIFA.com show how the calculations were done at that time. The current method isn't used to re-calculate rankings from before July 2006.
When the rankings began, FIFA had 167 member countries. Now, it has 211 members, and all of them are included in the rankings.
Early Ways of Calculating (1992–1998)
The first ranking formula, used from 1992 to 1998, was created by two teachers from the University of Zurich. It was simpler than later versions but still involved detailed calculations. The main idea was to give points for matches played between FIFA-approved national teams. These points were based on results over the past eight years in official FIFA matches, like friendly games, World Cup qualifiers, and continental championship games.
Teams earned:
- 3 points for a win
- 1 point for a draw
- 0 points for a loss
The calculation also considered other things:
- Team Strength: Winning against a higher-ranked team gave more points than winning against a lower-ranked team.
- Goals: Goals scored also gave points, but fewer than winning or drawing.
- Away Matches: Playing away from home gave a small bonus of 0.3 points.
- Match Importance: Different types of matches had different importance factors:
* Friendly matches: × 1.00 * Qualifiers for continental championships: × 1.10 * World Cup qualifiers: × 1.25 * Continental championship finals: × 1.25 * World Cup finals: × 1.50
- Regional Strength: Matches between teams from different continents had a factor of 1.0. For teams from the same continent, the factor varied (e.g., 1.0 for European and South American teams, 0.9 for African teams).
For example, England dropped seven places in 1994, even though they didn't lose any matches. This was because they only played friendly games, which gave fewer points. They hadn't qualified for the 1994 FIFA World Cup and were automatically hosting UEFA Euro 1996, so they didn't play competitive qualifiers.
Changes in Calculation (1999–2006)
In January 1999, FIFA updated the ranking system again. This was to fix issues people had pointed out. Now, all matches, their scores, and importance were used in the calculation. Only matches for the senior men's national team were included.
Key changes included:
- Points were scaled up (multiplied by ten).
- The system considered more factors like:
* The number of goals scored or given up. * Whether the match was played at home or away. * How important the match or competition was. * The strength of the region the teams were from.
- Teams could now earn points even if they lost.
This new system was more complicated but helped make the rankings more accurate. It also continued to give out annual awards like "Team of the Year" and "Best Mover of the Year."
More Updates (2006–2018)
After the 2006 FIFA World Cup, FIFA announced another update. The period of results considered was shortened from eight to four years. The calculation method became simpler. Things like goals scored and home/away advantage were no longer counted. Other parts of the calculation, like how important different matches were, were also changed.
This update was mainly because many football fans felt the old system wasn't accurate. They thought it didn't react fast enough to how teams were actually performing.
The Latest Ranking System (2018 onwards)
In 2017, FIFA decided to review the ranking system again. On June 10, 2018, they announced that the system would be updated after the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The new method is based on the Elo rating system, which means rankings are updated after each game. The idea of giving different weight to each continent was removed. However, the new method still doesn't consider if a game is home or away, or how big the winning margin is.
FIFA first planned to use the old ranking points from June 2018 as a starting point. But they changed their minds. Instead, they gave all teams a starting number of points between 1600 (for the previously top-ranked team, Germany) and 868 (for teams with 0 points in June). This led to bigger changes in the rankings. For example, Germany, who had been knocked out early in the World Cup, fell to 15th place. Meanwhile, France, who won the 2018 World Cup, moved to the top.
In April 2021, another small change was made: team points are now shown with two decimal places instead of being rounded to the nearest whole number.
Top Teams in History
|
When the system first started, Germany was the top-ranked team. This was because they had been very strong, reaching three previous FIFA World Cup finals and winning one.
Brazil then took the lead before the 1994 FIFA World Cup. They had won eight out of nine qualification matches. Italy briefly led after their own successful World Cup qualifying. Germany then got the top spot back.
Brazil's success in their long qualifying campaign put them back in the lead for a short time. Germany led again during the 1994 World Cup. But after Brazil won that competition, they held a big lead for almost seven years. Then, a strong France team, which won both the 1998 FIFA World Cup and the 2000 European Football Championship, took over.
Brazil returned to the top after winning the 2002 FIFA World Cup. They stayed there until February 2007, when Italy took over after winning the 2006 FIFA World Cup. A month later, Argentina reached the top for the first time. But Italy quickly regained its place. After winning the Copa América 2007, Brazil returned to the top. However, Italy and then Argentina took turns at the top later that year.
In July 2008, Spain became number one for the first time after winning UEFA Euro 2008. Brazil started its sixth time at the top in July 2009 after winning the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup. Spain then regained the top spot in November 2009 after winning all their matches to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
In April 2010, Brazil was back at the top. After winning the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Spain took the top position again and held it until August 2011. Then, the Netherlands reached the top for the first time, but only for a month.
In July 2014, Germany led the rankings again after winning the 2014 FIFA World Cup. In July 2015, Argentina reached the top spot for the first time since 2008. This was after they reached the finals of both the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2015 Copa America. In November 2015, Belgium became the leader for the first time after finishing top of their Euro 2016 qualifying group. Belgium led until April 2016, when Argentina returned to the top. On April 6, 2017, Brazil was back at number one for the first time since before the 2010 World Cup. But Germany regained the top spot in July after winning the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup.
In August 2018, after the new Elo-based system was introduced, France took the top spot for the first time in almost 16 years, having won the 2018 FIFA World Cup. A month later, Belgium shared the top spot with France. Belgium then held the sole top spot for almost four years until March 2022. On March 31, 2022, Brazil returned to the top of the list.
Why the Rankings Are Used
FIFA uses these rankings to show how well the national football teams of its member countries are doing. FIFA says the rankings provide "a reliable way to compare national A-teams."
The rankings are used to help decide which teams are "seeded" in competitions. Being seeded means a team is placed in a better position in a tournament draw, often avoiding other strong teams early on. For example, the rankings were used to seed groups in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification for teams from different continents. The October 2009 ranking was used to decide the seeds for the 2010 FIFA World Cup final draw.
The rankings also help decide the winners of two annual awards given to national teams.
Special Ranking Releases
Sometimes, FIFA releases special ranking lists for a particular group of countries. This happens when they need to decide the seeding for specific events, like FIFA World Cup qualification. For example, the seeding for the third round of Asian qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup was based on a special FIFA World Ranking list for Asian teams released on June 18, 2021.
Past Criticisms of the Ranking System
Since they started in 1992, the FIFA World Rankings have been talked about a lot. People often debated how the points were calculated and why some teams seemed to have a ranking that didn't match how good they were. Because of these issues, other football experts created their own ranking systems.
The first system was very simple. It didn't consider how good the opponent was or how important the match was. This led to Norway reaching second place in 1993 and 1995, which many people found surprising.
The system was changed in 1999 to include how important a match was and the strength of the opponent. This meant winning against a weak team gave fewer points than winning against a much stronger one. Further changes in 2006 reduced the number of years of results considered from eight to four, focusing more on recent matches.
Still, criticisms continued. Some unusual rankings were noted, like the United States reaching fourth place in 2006, which even surprised their own players. Israel climbed to 15th in November 2008, surprising the Israeli news. And Belgium was ranked number one in November 2015, even though they had only played in one major tournament final stage in the previous 13 years.
Another problem with the 2006–2018 system was that countries hosting big tournaments often dropped in the rankings. This happened because they automatically qualified for the tournament and only played lower-value friendly matches. For example, 2014 FIFA World Cup hosts Brazil fell to a very low ranking of 22nd before that tournament, where they then finished fourth. 2018 FIFA World Cup hosts Russia had the lowest ranking (70th) at their tournament, but still reached the quarter-finals.
In the 2010s, some teams realized they could "play the system." They would avoid playing friendly matches, especially against weaker teams. This was because even winning a friendly could sometimes lower a team's average score. Before the 2018 World Cup draw, Romania even hired a "ranking consultant" and played only one friendly match in the year before the draw. Similar things were said about Switzerland and Poland.
The old system also used a "regional strength multiplier." Some people said this made the rankings unfair by favoring or disfavoring certain regions.
How the Rankings Are Calculated Now
On June 10, 2018, FIFA approved the new ranking system. It's based on the Elo rating system. After each game, points are added to or taken away from a team's score.
The points change depends on:
- Points Before the Game: How many points the team had before the match.
- Importance of the Game: Different types of matches are worth more points. For example:
* Friendly games outside official dates: 5 points * Friendly games during official dates: 10 points * Nations League group matches: 15 points * Qualifiers for big tournaments (like World Cup or continental championships): 25 points * Matches in the early stages of big tournaments: 35 points * Matches in the later stages of big tournaments (quarter-finals onwards): 40 points * World Cup matches (before quarter-finals): 50 points * World Cup matches (quarter-finals, semi-finals, final): 60 points
- Result of the Game:
* Loss (after regular or extra time): 0 points * Draw or loss in a penalty shoot-out: 0.5 points * Win in a penalty shoot-out: 0.75 points * Win (after regular or extra time): 1 point
- Expected Result: This is based on the difference in points between the two teams before the game. If a higher-ranked team beats a lower-ranked team, they gain fewer points than if a lower-ranked team beats a higher-ranked team.
If a team loses in a knockout stage of a tournament, their points won't go down.
Awards
Each year, FIFA gives out two awards to its member countries based on their rankings.
Team of the Year
The "Team of the Year" award goes to the team ranked number one in the December FIFA World Ranking.
Brazil has won this award 13 times in the 29-year history of the rankings, including most recently. Brazil also holds the record for most consecutive wins (seven, from 1994 to 2000). The table below shows the top three teams for each year:
| Year | First place | Second place | Third place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Germany |
Italy |
Brazil |
| 1994 | Brazil |
Spain |
Sweden |
| 1995 | Brazil |
Germany |
Italy |
| 1996 | Brazil |
Germany |
France |
| 1997 | Brazil |
Germany |
 Czech Republic |
| 1998 | Brazil |
France |
Germany |
| 1999 | Brazil |
Czech Republic |
France |
| 2000 | Brazil |
France |
Argentina |
| 2001 | France |
Argentina |
Brazil |
| 2002 | Brazil |
France |
Spain |
| 2003 | Brazil |
France |
Spain |
| 2004 | Brazil |
France |
Argentina |
| 2005 | Brazil |
Czech Republic |
Netherlands |
| 2006 | Brazil |
Italy |
Argentina |
| 2007 | Argentina |
Brazil |
Italy |
| 2008 | Spain |
Germany |
Netherlands |
| 2009 | Spain |
Brazil |
Netherlands |
| 2010 | Spain |
Netherlands |
Germany |
| 2011 | Spain |
Netherlands |
Germany |
| 2012 | Spain |
Germany |
Argentina |
| 2013 | Spain |
Germany |
Argentina |
| 2014 | Germany |
Argentina |
Colombia |
| 2015 | Belgium |
Argentina |
Spain |
| 2016 | Argentina |
Brazil |
Germany |
| 2017 | Germany |
Brazil |
Portugal |
| 2018 | Belgium |
France |
Brazil |
| 2019 | Belgium |
France |
Brazil |
| 2020 | Belgium |
France |
Brazil |
| 2021 | Belgium |
Brazil |
France |
| 2022 | Brazil |
Argentina |
France |
Team Achievements
| Team | First place | Second place | Third place |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brazil |
13 (1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2022) | 5 (2007, 2009, 2016, 2017, 2021) | 5 (1993, 2001, 2018, 2019, 2020) |
| Spain |
6 (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013) | 1 (1994) | 3 (2002, 2003, 2015) |
| Belgium |
5 (2015, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021) | 0 | 0 |
| Germany |
3 (1993, 2014, 2017) | 6 (1995, 1996, 1997, 2008, 2012, 2013) | 4 (1998, 2010, 2011, 2016) |
| Argentina |
2 (2007, 2016) | 4 (2001, 2014, 2015, 2022) | 5 (2000, 2004, 2006, 2012, 2013) |
| France |
1 (2001) | 8 (1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2018, 2019, 2020) | 4 (1996, 1999, 2021, 2022) |
| Netherlands |
0 | 2 (2010, 2011) | 3 (2005, 2008, 2009) |
| Italy |
0 | 2 (1993, 2006) | 2 (1995, 2007) |
| Czech Republic |
0 | 2 (1999, 2005) | 1 (1997) |
| Sweden |
0 | 0 | 1 (1994) |
| Colombia |
0 | 0 | 1 (2014) |
| Portugal |
0 | 0 | 1 (2017) |
Best Mover of the Year
The "Best Mover of the Year" award goes to the team that made the biggest progress up the rankings during the year. It's not just about moving the most places. The calculation considers that it's harder to earn points and move up when a team is already highly ranked.
From 1993 to 2006, the award was given based on a calculation involving the points a team had at the end of the year and the points it earned during that year. The team with the highest score won. An official award was given to the coach of the winning team at the annual FIFA World Player Gala until 2006.
| Year | First place | Second place | Third place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Colombia |
Portugal |
 Morocco |
| 1994 | Croatia |
Brazil |
 Uzbekistan |
| 1995 |  Jamaica |
 Trinidad and Tobago |
Czech Republic |
| 1996 |  South Africa |
 Paraguay |
 Canada |
| 1997 |  Yugoslavia |
 Bosnia and Herzegovina |
 Iran |
| 1998 | Croatia |
France |
Argentina |
| 1999 |  Slovenia |
 Cuba |
Uzbekistan |
| 2000 |  Nigeria |
 Honduras |
 Cameroon |
| 2001 |  Costa Rica |
 Australia |
Honduras |
| 2002 |  Senegal |
Wales |
Brazil |
| 2003 |  Bahrain |
 Oman |
 Turkmenistan |
| 2004 |  China |
Uzbekistan |
 Ivory Coast |
| 2005 |  Ghana |
 Ethiopia |
Switzerland |
| 2006 | Italy |
Germany |
France |
Even though there's no official award ceremony for "Best Mover" anymore, FIFA still releases a list of the top movers each year. Since 2007, the "Mover of the Year" is simply decided by how many points a team gained in the rankings from the start to the end of the year.
| Year | Best mover | Second best | Third best | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 |  Mozambique (+245 pts) |
 Norway (+240 pts) |
 New Caledonia (+220 pts) |
|
| 2008 | Spain (+314 pts) |
 Montenegro (+245 pts) |
 Russia (+242 pts) |
|
| 2009 | Brazil (+322 pts)
 Algeria (+322 pts) |
— | Slovenia (+235 pts) |
|
| 2010 | Netherlands (+435 pts) |
Montenegro (+368 pts) |
 Botswana (+316 pts) |
|
| 2011 | Wales (+330 pts) |
 Sierra Leone (+302 pts) |
 Bosnia and Herzegovina (+287 pts) |
|
| 2012 | Colombia (+455 pts) |
 Ecuador (+365 pts) |
 Mali (+337 pts) |
|
| 2013 |  Ukraine (+312 pts) |
 Armenia (+259 pts) |
 United States (+237 pts) |
|
| 2014 | Germany (+407 pts) |
 Slovakia (+334 pts) |
Belgium (+317 pts) |
|
| 2015 |  Turkey (+329 pts) |
 Hungary (+313 pts) |
 Nicaragua (+295 pts) |
|
| 2016 | France (+437 pts) |
Peru (+321 pts) |
Poland (+311 pts) |
|
| 2017 | Denmark (+456 pts) |
Sweden (+323 pts) |
 Bolivia (+315 pts) |
|
| 2018 | France (+165 pts) |
Uruguay (+151 pts) |
 Kosovo (+133 pts) |
|
| 2019 |  Qatar (+138 pts) |
Algeria (+135 pts) |
 Japan (+89 pts) |
|
| 2020 | Hungary (+44 pts) |
Ecuador (+41 pts) |
 Malta (+32 pts) |
|
| 2021 | Canada (+130.32 pts) |
Italy (+115.77 pts) |
Argentina (+108.51 pts) |
|
| 2022 | Morocco (+142.42 pts) |
Croatia (+106.88 pts) |
Argentina (+87.87 pts) |
When Rankings Are Published
The rankings are published according to FIFA's official international match calendar.
| Release date |
|---|
| 21 September |
| 26 October |
See also
In Spanish: Clasificación mundial de la FIFA para niños
- FIFA Women's World Ranking
- World Football Elo Ratings
- Statistical association football predictions
- Geography of association football
