Does it make
sense to anyone? Why Nigeria national team,
despite winning most of its recent matches, keeps going down in FIFA ranking?
Truly, most
Nigerian football fans are yet to understand it. For instance, looking at the
performance of African national teams in the ranking, it poses different
questions why Ivorian national team should be ranked 1st in Africa
and 17th in the overall current ranking, having not won any major
trophy in the world or Africa in recent years. Then, compare it with Nigeria’s
current status.
Nigeria is
currently champion of Africa and since 2013, it has won AFCON, Qualified for
FIFA World cup in Brazil, Participated in Confederations Cup, Did well in grade
‘A’ friendly games against Mexico and Italy, as well won Bronze in recently
concluded CHAN. Yet, the country is still ranked 41 in world and 5th
in Africa (with 701 Points) behind Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Algeria, Egypt and
Mali.
Let us
examine how the ranking is calculated and see if it actually makes sense to
Nigeria’s current ranking.
·
First,
FIFA World ranking only rank Men national team, excluding the performances of
Women or the junior national teams.
·
The
teams of member nations of FIFA are ranked based on their game result, with the
most successful teams being ranked highest.
·
Rankings
are based on a national team’s performance over 4 years, with more recent result
and more significant matches being heavily weighed.
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Current Calculation Method
The current
calculation procedure for FIFA World ranking, which was revised and adopted
since 2006, take into account the following factors: Match result, match
status, Opposition strength, and Regional strength.
1.
Match Result:
·
Win
(No penalty shootout) 3
points
·
Win
(Penalty shootout) 2
points
·
Draw 1
point
·
Loss
(Penalty shootout) 1 point
·
Loss
(No Penalty shootout) 0
point
2.
Match Status:
FIFA World ranking take into account only International ‘A’ matches,
which include:
·
Matches
played as part of FIFA World Cup x
4.0 multiplier
·
FIFA
World Cup qualifiers x
2.5 “
·
FIFA
Confederations Cup x
3.0 “
·
Continental
Final such as AFCON x
3.0 “
·
Continental
qualifiers x
2.5 “
·
International
Friendly x
1.0 “
Note: For
the purpose of the ranking, FIFA defines an International ‘A’ match as a match
between two of its member teams where both field their first team.
3.
Opponent Strength:
Obviously, a win against a very highly ranked opponent give the country
more points. The formula used is:
Opposition Strength multiplier = 200 – Ranking/ 100
Example, if the opposition team is current ranked 8th in the
world:
200 – 8/100 =
4.
Regional Strength:
·
UEFA
(Europe) 1.00 multiplier
·
COMMEROL
(South America) 1.00 “
·
CONCACAF
(North & Central America) 0.88 “
·
AFC
(Asia) 0.86
“
·
CAF
(Africa) 0.86
“
·
OFC
(Oceania) 0.85
“
Teams actual
scores are a result of the average points gained over each Calendar year of
matches from the previous 4 years. But the ranking is published every month to
reflect current matches. See details of FIFA World Ranking calculation
procedure at Wikipedia.
Did You Know?
Nigeria national team was ranked 4th in the FIFA World ranking in May 1994.
The highest any African team has ever been ranked.
Why Nigeria Isn’t Ranked As High
Examining
the calculation method of FIFA World ranking you could deduce why Nigeria
current ranking isn’t as high as fans would expect. These are some of the
reasons:
·
Nigeria
didn’t qualify for AFCON in 2011.
·
Nigeria
played mostly weaker oppositions like Rwanda, Malawi, Namibia, Kenya… during
its world cup and CHAN qualifiers.
·
Nigeria
had poor performance at 2013 Confederations Cup.
·
Nigeria
lost to higher ranked oppositions, Mali and Ghana, during the recently
concluded CHAN.
What Does FIFA World Ranking Matter
Anyway?
·
The
ranking is used by FIFA to rank the progression and current ability of the
national teams.
·
The
ranking is part of the calculation or the entire grounds to seed teams during
Draws of major competitions such as FIFA World Cup or AFCON.
·
The
ranking are used to determine the winner of the two FIFA annual Awards for
national teams.
·
Sport
Marketers use the ranking to determine sponsorship price for national teams,
·
Sport
event organizers use the ranking to determine price money for each national
team involved in an International ‘A’ friendly game.
