Football fans continue to argue over whether or not the FIFA ranking table is an accurate picture of a team’s quality, even though the discussion has been going on for years. The table is designed to rank national teams based on their performance in international competitions.
Despite this, it continues to be an essential component of the international game, since the body that governs the sport on a global scale makes use of the method to decide the seeding order for tournaments and qualification draws. Which team is now ranked first in the FIFA world rankings as it prepares to compete in the World Cup?
Rankings of all 32 World Cup Teams According to FIFA
At the time of the 2022 World Cup, the Brazilian national football team will be ranked first in the world. The giants of South America have been at the top of the rankings since March 31 of this year, when they took over for Belgium, which had previously held the position for almost four years.
Ghana, on the other hand, came into Qatar as the lowest-ranked nation, with the African side currently sitting at position 61. Italy, ranked sixth, is the highest-ranked team that did not qualify for the tournament, and Saudi Arabia, ranked 51st, caused a dramatic upset by upsetting Argentina, ranked third, in their opening game. Italy is the highest-ranked team that did not qualify.
Is the World Cup Won by the Top Team?
Surprisingly, the team that enters the World Cup with the highest ranking has never been victorious in the competition. Rankings have only been used since the 1994 World Cup, when Germany entered the competition as the top team but was eventually overtaken by Brazil, which went on to win the tournament.
Even though they were ranked number one at the time, Brazil was eliminated from contention in the 1998 World Cup final by France with a score of 3-0. Then, during the 2002 World Cup, France was in the lead, but Brazil came from behind to win the tournament and take home the trophy.
Brazil entered the 2006 and 2010 championships as the top-ranked team in the world, but Italy and Spain, respectively, emerged victorious in both of those competitions. After that, Spain was in first place going into 2014, when Germany won the championship; Germany, in turn, was number one in 2018, when France won the championship.
Ranking Calculating Method
A points-based system has been used to determine the FIFA rankings since 1992. In August 2018, FIFA announced a new system for determining world rankings. Instead of using an average amount of points won over a particular period, this new approach adds or subtracts points from a team’s prior total depending on results.
The strength of an opponent affects the margin of victory or defeat awarded to a team. A team will earn more points for a victory over a higher-ranked opponent than over one from outside the top 20. The points earned will also be affected by how the game turns out. Winning a World Cup match is worth more than winning an international friendly because of the extra importance placed on World Cup games.
When penalty shootouts are used to determine the winner of a match, the losing team receives the same number of points as if the game had ended in a tie, while the winning side receives the points normally associated with a loss. It’s also worth noting that teams won’t be docked points if they lose in the knockout phase of a tournament’s finals.
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