September 6 – FIFA says it will review its ranking system after qualification for the 2018 World Cup is finished. The announcement comes in the wake of criticism of how countries can play the system to improve their tournament seedings.
In a short statement, a FIFA spokesperson said: “FIFA is reviewing the FIFA Coca-Cola World Ranking system and will take a decision after the completion of qualification for the 2018 FIFA World Cup if any changes are be made to improve the ranking.”
The FIFA rankings are based on a four-year rolling period and will be used to determine seedings at the 2018 World Cup with the top seven nations, plus hosts Russia, due to be seeded in December’s draw.
An article in The Times titled‘Why friendlies are hurting England’s World Cup hopes’ set out clearly how the current ranking system penalises teams for playing friendlies in the build up to seeding decisions – as well as how the English FA fails to exploit the system to its advantage.
The crucial point is that a win in a friendly earns a team only 40% of the points a team receives for a win in a tournament qualifier. The result is that playing friendlies, even if they are won, pulls down a team’s average ranking points.
A national federation can therefore improve its ranking position by avoiding playing friendlies in the period up to the seeding cut off. As the article points out, Switzerland and Poland, who currently lie fourth and fifth in the ranking, have each played just one friendly in the past 12 months – whereas England in 13th place have played three.
If England had avoided playing these friendly games they would be in seventh place in the ranking and in line for World Cup seeding. What is more, if England had won all these friendlies (instead of drawing one and losing two) their ranking points would be lower than if they had avoided playing them altogether.
Whilst the article suggests that the FA is unaware of how to play the ranking – and the importance of scheduling friendlies after the seeding period for a major tournament instead of before – it is equally possible the FA have decided commercial considerations and the match practice friendlies provide are more important than any seeding benefit.
Regardless of any criticism attaching to the FA, it is not surprising that FIFA has ordered a review given the issue has now been exposed with the anomalies clear for all to see. Whether this leads to any change in the system in favour of friendlies remains to be seen, as any ranking formula will inevitably throw up problems of its own.
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