I've ranted before about the FIFA World Rankings and how wrong they appear, it seems that I'm not the only one and that a new method of ranking will be used after this World Cup. However, I've also found an alternative ranking system called the World Football Elo Ratings based on the Elo rating systems originally used to rate chess players. It appears to be far more relevent to real life than the FIFA scheme, and the following table shows this in the 16 qualifiers for the knock out round of the World Cup
| Team | FIFA rank | Elo rank |
|---|---|---|
| Germany | 19 | 8 |
| Sweden | 16 | 13 |
| Argentina | 8 | 4 |
| Mexico | 6 | 17 |
| England | 10 | 5 |
| Ecuador | 39 | 28 |
| Portugal | 8 | 3 |
| Holland | 3 | 7 |
| Italy | 14 | 6 |
| Australia | 44 | 16 |
| Switzerland | 35 | 12 |
| Ukraine | 41 | 20 |
| Brazil | 1 | 1 |
| Ghana | 50 | 35 |
| Spain | 5 | 2 |
| France | 7 | 9 |
The figures tell the story, FIFA's rankings have teams rated 50th in the World in the last 16 of the World Cup. With 6 of the last 16 being ranked higher than 16. Noticable omissions being the team rated second and fourth in the world by FIFA; the Czech Republic and USA respectively, who are 11th and 27th on the Elo rankings. Need I say any more?
