FIFA World Rankings - April 2005

[John Layfield]

I have the FIFA World Rankings for April 2005 here, so I thought I'd post them for any and all soccer fans on the board. All 205 FIFA member nations are ranked here from 1st to 205th. Nations of possible interest to board members have been bolded to catch your eye quicker. If a nation you're interested in isn't bolded, just say so, and I'll make sure it is in future updates. Anyway, here we go.

1 Brazil (Current World Cup holders)
2 Czech Republic
3 Argentina
4 France
5 Netherlands
6 England
7 Spain
8 Mexico
9 Portugal
10 Italy
11 USA
12 Greece
13 Sweden
14 Turkey
15 Republic of Ireland
16 Uruguay
17 Japan
18 Denmark
19 Iran
20 Germany
21 Croatia
22 Costa Rica
23 Korea Republic
24 Nigeria
25 Poland
26 Cameroon
27 Colombia
28 Egypt
29 Paraguay
30 Romania
31 Russia
32 Saudi Arabia
33 Senegal
34 Ecuador
35 Morocco
36 Norway
37 Finland
38 South Africa
39 Tunisia
40 Bulgaria
41 Belgium
42 Jamaica
43 Ukraine
44 Côte d'Ivoire
45 Switzerland
46 Slovenia
47 Serbia and Montenegro
48 Jordan
49 Slovakia
50 Bahrain
51 Honduras
52 Israel
53 Iraq
54 Uzbekistan
55 Kuwait
56 Australia
57 Mali
58 China PR
59 Oman
60 Guatemala
61 Trinidad and Tobago
62 Zimbabwe
63 Belarus
64 Cuba
65 Latvia
66 Peru
67 Libya
68 Qatar
69 Hungary
70 Venezuela
71 Zambia
72 Austria
73 Wales
74 Angola
75 Congo DR
76 Algeria
77 Chile
78 Ghana
79 Kenya
80 Togo
81 Bosnia-Herzegovina
82 Estonia
83 Thailand
84 Canada
85 United Arab Emirates
86 Scotland
87 Syria
88 Burkina Faso
89 Albania
90 Guinea
91 Korea DPR
92 Haiti
93 Indonesia
94 Bolivia
95 Iceland
96 FYR Macedonia
97 Panama
98 Lithuania
99 New Zealand
100 Turkmenistan
101 Rwanda
102 Georgia
103 Sudan
104 Singapore
105 Botswana
106 Gabon
107 Vietnam
108 Malawi
109 Cyprus
110 El Salvador
111 Uganda
112 Lebanon
113 Northern Ireland
114 Malaysia
115 Moldova
116 Azerbaijan
117 Congo
118 St. Lucia
119 St. Kitts and Nevis
120 Armenia
121 Cape Verde Islands
122 Barbados
123 Benin
124 Yemen
125 Liberia
126 Hong Kong
127 Tahiti
128 Palestine
129 Mozambique
130 Solomon Islands
131 Swaziland
132 Ethiopia
133 Faroe Islands
134 St. Vincent and the Grenadines
135 India
136 Fiji
137 Malta
138 Tajikistan
139 Andorra
140 Sri Lanka
141 Maldives
142 Liechtenstein
143 Mauritius
144 Lesotho
145 Vanuatu
146 Burundi
147 Myanmar
148 Grenada
149 Kazakhstan
150 Madagascar
151 Surinam
152 Kyrgyzstan
153 Chinese Taipei
154 Nicaragua
155 Antigua and Barbuda
156 Luxembourg
157 Gambia
158 Bermuda
159 Namibia
160 San Marino
161 Chad
162 Papua New Guinea
163 Sierra Leone
164 Laos
165 British Virgin Islands
166 Netherlands Antilles
167 Dominica
168 Bangladesh
169 Eritrea
170 Equatorial Guinea
171 Dominican Republic
172 Tanzania
173 Seychelles
174 Niger
175 Mauritania
176 Cayman Islands
177 Samoa
178 Nepal
179 Pakistan
180 Belize
181 Central African Republic
182 Guyana
183 Mongolia
184 Tonga
185 Cambodia
186 New Caledonia
187 Philippines
188 Bhutan
189 Somalia
190 Macao
191 Guinea-Bissau
192 Bahamas
193 Cook Islands
194 Puerto Rico
195 São Tomé e Príncipe
196 US Virgin Islands
197 Anguilla
198 Aruba
199 Brunei Darussalam
200 Afghanistan
201 Djibouti
202 Montserrat
203 Turks and Caicos Islands
204 Guam
205 American Samoa

Belgium rose the most this month. They've gone up 10 spots. They're now ranked 41st in the world. Cape Verde Islands also done well, climbing 8 spots to 121st overall. Austria also rose 8 spots, they now lie 72nd in the world. Togo also climbed 8 places to 79th.

Biggest drops include: Jordan, down 6 to 48th. Iraq and Uzbekistan, both down 8 to 53rd and 54th spot respectively.

The big news however, is that the Czech Republic and France have swapped places, placing the Czech Republic 2nd in the world, one spot behind Brazil. While France drop behind Argentina to take 4th place. Brazil remain on top of the rankings. The United States remain in the 11th spot.

World Cup Qualification resumes in June, so that's when the rankings will really start to shake up. They'll be updated every month just the same, of course, just without the same sheer amount of matches going into the calculations.
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One day, I shall come back. Yes, we shall all come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine.

[Futch]

Weee Argentina Is third, Mwahahahah Im so happy ^_^

Thanks John Layfield I had forgotten to check em out.

I must admit im very impressed with mexico, they are turning into a force to be reckoned with...
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DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

[Njord]

I'm not that interested in soccer (football) but 55 of 205 (it's a decent number) isn't that bad, I think Kuwait needs a push (big push) and more cheering (and other things of course).

I'll always be happy, even if we were in the bottom (not that down in the bottom though).
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[Ted]

I see it very funny, that my home country Finland is ranked so high than 37. Actually Finland is much worse than this ranking says. Of course there is a lot of things what influence this whole ranking.

I should still say that many country which has lower ranking, is better in football than Finland.

Number one Brazil is truly in right place. I fave Brazil a lot and be their side everytime when is time of World Cup. So be it in next time too. =)

[Krawnik]

En-ga-land! En-ga-land!

I don't watch very many sporting events, but the World Cup (and Stanley Cup, when there's hockey :P), is an event I never miss. Last year my Portugese friend and I made a bet over the England-Portugal match. We bet one cheesecake. The match was so intense we both nearly choked.

Arrrgh, England lost. *Lament!!*

But still, we shared the cake. And it was quite delicious.
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416- friggin' racists, messing up my generalizations, also stealing my jobs, women.
RIP Ninjalicious

[John Layfield]

[Goldy]

[John Layfield]

Liberia could run rings around Northern Ireland and their Divison 2, sorry, 'League One', quality players. 120th at best. For one, Liberia are fit.

15th is pretty good for us. I remember when we were 8th, good times. :D
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One day, I shall come back. Yes, we shall all come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine.

[Exile]

I don't know...England really do have the quality in their team to be the 6th best...they just don't seem to play like it most of the time but maybe they'll get it together for Germany, who knows.

The way I see it Czech Rep are too high, as well as Mexico being above Portugal and Italy, I have my doubts about that. USA aren't as good as Greece I doubt, though they did well in the last world cup I suppose. Sweden are very near England in terms of the national team's game, perhaps not in terms of player by player quality, I think, they always give us a hard game when we play them and as such they should be very near England's rank I summise. Germany seem a bit low at 20th as well or am I rating them on past performance and not the current ability of their squad? I'm not too sure to be honest.

John Layfield, I'm interested in who you would put in front of England if you think they're too high, how about a personal top ten? I'm just curious.
By the way I disagree for your reasoning of why England are that high being to sell the game to America. I do think English players are over rated simply for being English, in terms of what they bring to a team and their pricing. English players have always cost unfairly more to buy.
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Cry woe, destruction, ruin, and decay -
The worst is death, and death will have his day.

[John Layfield]

My reference to 'trying to sell the game to the Americans' was referring to the United State's lofty position, not Englands.

The FIFA World Rankings are made up of points gained for each win, varying on the importance and the ranking of the team you are playing as well as the importance of the actual match. It takes into account results from the last 7 years, with each previous years points total being less than the one after it. So, if I were to base it on 2004-05...

1 Brazil (Current World Cup holders)
2 Argentina
3 France
4 Netherlands
5 Spain
6 Portugal
7 Italy
8 Czech Republic
9 Mexico
10 Sweden

The Czech's do have quality, they just don't get the chance to show it. No-one really cares if the Czech's are dominating their World Cup Qualifying Group or not. Ditto Mexico. They're erratic as hell but good when they feel like it.

England are HIGHLY over-rated. And they have been for nigh on 30 years now. I'm sorry, but there's only so long a country can live off of one World Cup win back in the '60s. England have done nothing since Venables that says they're a threat to anything. Sweden don't play skillfully, but they win games.

After that, it's just the old guard in the rankings all the way. They don't get their reputations for nothing.
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One day, I shall come back. Yes, we shall all come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine.

[Exile]

Well I'm English and as such biased to them so I feel it's my place to disagree with you once more, I know this is all opinion based and as such it really holds little bearing, after all <cliche>the game isn't played on paper</cliche>.

I still believe of the teams you mentioned England are better than Sweden and Mexico. I probably think they edge others but it would be marginal and due to my bias I digress from that. Venables, that's a while back...they were good in the last world cup making the Semis and losing to the eventual winners, Brazil so I really don't think that was a bad showing to be honest and I think it says they can challenge for major titles.

I wouldn't see England outside the top 10 just yet, they're still a good side even if I agree they are over-rated.

Hm, apart from sticking England a little higher personally, I like your list maybe I'd take Sweden over Mexico and possibly drop the Netherlands a place or two since they never seem to make an impact in the big competitions.
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Cry woe, destruction, ruin, and decay -
The worst is death, and death will have his day.

[John Layfield]

Of course, it's English bias that fuels Englands drive in soccer. Hence why it seems to think it's always a factor in the World Cup.

England may have made good progress in 2002 but no-one outside of England expected anything more than what happened. England bumbled along before falling flat on their faces. Again.

I wish they wouldn't, because it's just not funny anymore: England team and officials put enormous pressure on themselves by claiming they can win the entire tournament. They fail. They try and make up for it by claiming they'll be up there for the next one. Wash, rinse, repeat.

England would be better served saying: "We haven't won a major tournament in years. We're going to go and do our best and come home." Germany, France and the like don't have the same puffed-up expectation of themselves the way Englands international soccer team does.

That said, Top 10? Possibly. They have good players. Not GREAT players but they are capable of playing 11 good players at the same time, which is good enough. How Heskey gets capped is a mystery to me, and the world at large, however.
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One day, I shall come back. Yes, we shall all come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine.

[Exile]

Now come on be fair, Heskey's been out of the team for a good while replaced by the likes of Rooney (Yes, overpriced and over rated but still good), Defoe and Johnson, all immeasurably better than the walking pylon Emile.

But you're telling me getting to the semi finals shows England to be a non-factor? They weren't exactly thrashed by Brazil, it took a quality free kick by Ronaldinho. Perhaps you have a little anti-english bias? I'm not sure. I hate the English press for their overblown expectations and their better than the rest of the world mentality (not only that I hate how they feel they have some sort of controlling input into the team) but we did beat Argentina in that competition and our bumbling along was more than could be said of Spain, France and the Netherlands.

In the Euros, we lost to a pretty good Portugese side on home soil through penalties, not a poor effort really but at the same time the Urs Meier thing overshadowed the actual game (I think it was close, but not a goal), another sour point against the media for me.

Maybe you think I'm going easy on England because I'm English I'd like to think I'm fairly objective in my observations, but I do feel perhaps you're being a bit hard on them for whatever reason.
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Cry woe, destruction, ruin, and decay -
The worst is death, and death will have his day.

[Starslasher]

Ok, looking for my mother country...Pakistan...Number 179. :| Not surprising at all. They are much, much more interested in cricket and hockey.

At least Indonesia's in the Top 100. Ayo, Indonesia!!
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Guardian of Greenhill & Devoted Protector of Oulan



Bork! Bork! Bork!

[Tonberry]

Woohoo, number 11. Go US. That's really good.