Latest FIFA rankings.

Pride Fighter

Good news for the Republic of Ireland who are up 3 places to 20th in the world. Spain remain top with Germany up to second and the Netherlands third.

http://www.fifa.com/worldranking/rankingtable/index.html

Good news for Gabon who have climbed 46 places due to their African Cup of Nations exploits and are now 45th in the world.

J. Marston

Pride Fighter wrote: »

Good news for the Republic of Ireland who are up 3 places to 20th in the world. Spain remain top with Germany up to second and the Netherlands third.

http://www.fifa.com/worldranking/rankingtable/index.html

Good news for Gabon who have climbed 46 places due to their African Cup of Nations exploits and are now 45th in the world.

YES!

theteal

Deadly, england are up to 5th, they will really think they have a chance to win the euros, this'll be super entertaining :pac:

SEPT 23 1989

Well done San Marino

28064212

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Well done San Marino

Yes, they got off the very bottom of the list by virtue of a team with a higher starting letter of the alphabet dropping down to zero ranking points

NinjaK

20th in the world is really good considering our population and the amount of other sports we play!

emc2

NinjaK wrote: »

20th in the world is really good considering our population and the amount of other sports we play!

Uruguay have a smaller population than we have so we could do better!

theteal

A bit weird, when I check that link, Ireland are 21st and San Marino are rock bottom




edit: never mind, must have been an old cached copy on my phone

Fratton Fred

emc2 wrote: »

Uruguay have a smaller population than we have so we could do better!

So do Bosnia and Croatia, who are also above Ireland.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

NinjaK wrote: »

20th in the world is really good considering our population and the amount of other sports we play!

Miss this bit lads?? He has a point.

Uruguay, Bosnia and Croatia. Can't remember seeing any of them at the Rugby world cup! Also, AFAIK the oul GAA isn't too strong in the Balkans and has taken a bit of a nosedive around the traditional stronghold of Montevideo.

Fratton Fred

deccurley wrote: »

Miss this bit lads?? He has a point.

Uruguay, Bosnia and Croatia. Can't remember seeing any of them at the Rugby world cup! Also, AFAIK the oul GAA isn't too strong in the Balkans and has taken a bit of a nosedive around the traditional stronghold of Montevideo.

I can't remember seeing an Irish Alpine skier, tennis player or ice hockey team either, but maybe I need to look harder.

asdfgh86

deccurley wrote: »

Miss this bit lads?? He has a point.

Uruguay, Bosnia and Croatia. Can't remember seeing any of them at the Rugby world cup! Also, AFAIK the oul GAA isn't too strong in the Balkans and has taken a bit of a nosedive around the traditional stronghold of Montevideo.

Hilarious post. Croatians, for example, play Tennis, Basketball, Volleyball, Ice Hockey and Team Handball to a very high level. Good Swimmers and Athletics team too.

Ireland are probably the best at GAA though, wonder why?

mike65

Parochial House!

Evil_Clown

Fratton Fred wrote: »

I can't remember seeing an Irish Alpine skier, tennis player or ice hockey team either, but maybe I need to look harder.

If anything basketball would be bigger than those sports in Croatia and Bosnia anyways, but with the inclusion of futsal I think those countries would have a higher percentage of kids starting out with soccer than Ireland.

DenMan

28064212 wrote: »

Yes, they got off the very bottom of the list by virtue of a team with a higher starting letter of the alphabet dropping down to zero ranking points

Nonetheless it's still an achievement.

Wolf Club

I can't imagine many teams actually pay attention to this, fair enough the top 4 seems about right but after that it's not really a great reflection. I know it's based on results, but even so there are some I don't understand. How did Switzerland get high on the list, for example?

LuckyLloyd

Wolf Club wrote: »

I can't imagine many teams actually pay attention to this, fair enough the top 4 seems about right but after that it's not really a great reflection. I know it's based on results, but even so there are some I don't understand. How did Switzerland get high on the list, for example?

Presumably by doing better in terms of results than you think?

Wolf Club

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Presumably by doing better in terms of results than you think?

I can't say I've been following them very closely but the fact that they didn't qualify for the Euro's would indicate they have been doing incredibly well, can't exactly remember them being world beaters at the last WC either. Yet they retain 16th in the world. Obviously they must meet the criteria or else they wouldn't be there, I just don't see how.

Fratton Fred

Wolf Club wrote: »

I can't imagine many teams actually pay attention to this, fair enough the top 4 seems about right but after that it's not really a great reflection. I know it's based on results, but even so there are some I don't understand. How did Switzerland get high on the list, for example?

Because they are privy to the contents of FIFA bank accounts?

G.K.

Up 7 places

FernandoTorres

Wolf Club wrote: »

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

Presumably by doing better in terms of results than you think?

I can't say I've been following them very closely but the fact that they didn't qualify for the Euro's would indicate they have been doing incredibly well, can't exactly remember them being world beaters at the last WC either. Yet they retain 16th in the world. Obviously they must meet the criteria or else they wouldn't be there, I just don't see how.

Didn't they beat Spain in the world cup!? So they are world beaters!

NufcNavan

The GAA excuse has been overplayed too much. You'd swear that we were the only country in the world that had a sport to rival 'soccer'.

Jayob10

DenMan wrote: »

Nonetheless it's still an achievement.

ah lads, lets put everything else to one side and just agree that we are feckin' great.

To Ireland, a great bunch of lads :pac:

NinjaK

I forgot that anything pro-Irish will be shot down on boards - anti-Irish west-brits nerds .ie

eagle eye

I gotta say there is a feeling of pride seeing Ireland in the top 20. When you think that there are over 100 coutries world wide and something like 35 in Europe that have bigger populations its a great achievement.

3hn2givr7mx1sc

NufcNavan wrote: »

The GAA excuse has been overplayed too much. You'd swear that we were the only country in the world that had a sport to rival 'soccer'.

Considering that GAA is drilled into children in most primary schools and there's no proper school soccer leagues in a lot of counties to rival GAA equivalent I think it's a fúcking great achievement.

Daemos

Only 3 places behind France

Neil3030

NinjaK wrote: »

20th in the world is really good considering our population and the amount of other sports we play! the abject dunces who run our national football association

FYP.

losthorizon

NinjaK wrote: »

20th in the world is really good considering our population and the amount of other sports we play!

We play a very small range of sports in Ireland really. Are we a force in Handball, Downhill skiing (the national sport of Austria and Switzerland), Bobsleigh etc?

Anything that required a bit of investment and we're no good at it.

I agree though 20th isnt bad - could be better with more support for the domestic league and more money into the coffers. I would also like to see more skillful players coming through.

eire4

Well done to the presant group of players. I know it is only a ranking but that is quite an achievment for us to reach 20th in the World in what is by far the Worlds game.

As an aside what is the highest ranking Ireland has ever achieved?

homerjay2005

NufcNavan wrote: »

The GAA excuse has been overplayed too much. You'd swear that we were the only country in the world that had a sport to rival 'soccer'.

theres very few countries above us thats competing with 3 other big sports, though realistically its only football and hurling, as rugby is more of a fans game, than actually played.

still though, we can get 82,000 at both our gaa finals, would get 82,000 at a leinster v munster game i would think if it was a HC semi and that should be an indication of just how strong competition is in ireland.

Pride Fighter

eire4 wrote: »

Well done to the presant group of players. I know it is only a ranking but that is quite an achievment for us to reach 20th in the World in what is by far the Worlds game.

As an aside what is the highest ranking Ireland has ever achieved?

6th in 1993 I believe.

upandcumming

Yep! Quite a high ranking!

http://www.fifa.com/associations/association=irl/ranking/gender=m/index.html

Dont be at yourself

Am I right in saying that from now on, Steve Staunton's record will be dropping off the 4 year time span on which these ratings are calculated? If that's the case, it shouldn't be too hard for Trap to push us even further up the rankings!

ArmaniJeanss

Dont be at yourself wrote: »

Am I right in saying that from now on, Steve Staunton's record will be dropping off the 4 year time span on which these ratings are calculated? If that's the case, it shouldn't be too hard for Trap to push us even further up the rankings!

Yep, his entire campaign is now gone off our ranking.
Next to disappear (at the end of the month) is a 0-1 friendly defeat to Brazil which will be replaced by the Czech game.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Ireland_national_football_team_2000s_results#2008

Gets difficult to move up after this though as our 2008 results were by and large good, whilst our 2012 competive fixtures are obviously very tricky (Croatia Spain Italy, and Germany in the World Cup quals)

Pro. F

homerjay2005 wrote: »

theres very few countries above us thats competing with 3 other big sports, though realistically its only football and hurling, as rugby is more of a fans game, than actually played.

still though, we can get 82,000 at both our gaa finals, would get 82,000 at a leinster v munster game i would think if it was a HC semi and that should be an indication of just how strong competition is in ireland.

Not when it comes to kids sports which is probably the only important demographic for shaping the success of the national teams.

Jesus Wept

Pride Fighter wrote: »

6th in 1993 I believe.

upandcumming wrote: »

Yep! Quite a high ranking!

http://www.fifa.com/associations/association=irl/ranking/gender=m/index.html

Was 9th our highest as per that link? Thought 8th was.

upandcumming

Its right there in that link.

Highest FIFA ranking
6 - December 1992. August 1993.

Luap

Bring on the Euros!!!

Mikeyt086

asdfgh86 wrote: »

Hilarious post. Croatians, for example, play Tennis, Basketball, Volleyball, Ice Hockey and Team Handball to a very high level. Good Swimmers and Athletics team too.

Ireland are probably the best at GAA though, wonder why?

lolwut?

As opposed to the solo version? :pac:

dan1895

Mikeyt086 wrote: »

lolwut?

As opposed to the solo version? :pac:

Yes, the game administered in this country by the GAA.

Rikand

Mad props to Equitorial Guinea's meteoric rise of 41 places from 151 - 110 :cool:

briany

It's great to see Ireland riding fairly high but it's really only a prestige thing at the end of the day and a rough estimate of a team's overall international standing. What real world benefits can the Irish team derive from the ranking at this point in time? It's crazy to see how far teams like Bulgaria and Northern Ireland have sunk though.

Fr Tod Umptious

briany wrote: »

It's great to see Ireland riding fairly high but it's really only a prestige thing at the end of the day and a rough estimate of a team's overall international standing. What real world benefits can the Irish team derive from the ranking at this point in time? It's crazy to see how far teams like Bulgaria and Northern Ireland have sunk though.

Well it does play a part in deciding the groupings for tournament qualification and finals seeding, so it is more important than 'prestige'.

ArmaniJeanss

briany wrote: »

It's great to see Ireland riding fairly high but it's really only a prestige thing at the end of the day and a rough estimate of a team's overall international standing. What real world benefits can the Irish team derive from the ranking at this point in time? It's crazy to see how far teams like Bulgaria and Northern Ireland have sunk though.

Well the seedings for the World Cup draw were done on FIFA rankings so if we'd been a few places higher at the time we'd have been in Pot2 rather than Pot3.
And the seedings for the playoffs for Brazil 2014 will be based on FIFA World rankings as at Oct 2013.

So it of importance once and potentially twice, in every 4 year cycle.

briany

briany wrote: »

It's great to see Ireland riding fairly high but it's really only a prestige thing at the end of the day and a rough estimate of a team's overall international standing. What real world benefits can the Irish team derive from the ranking at this point in time? It's crazy to see how far teams like Bulgaria and Northern Ireland have sunk though.

.

Fr Tod Umptious

briany wrote: »

.

Well the higher up the ranking you are now the more you have to fall to land in a lower pot.

briany

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

Well the higher up the ranking you are now the more you have to fall to land in a lower pot.

Don't get me wrong, it's nice that the team are enjoying a high ranking but while they would have further to fall, there is a large window of time before the ranking becomes a pertinent issue and anything could happen in it. The team may rise, it may fall and I only wish that the WC draw could have been held later so that we could have reaped the benefits of the ranking.

darkman2

Ireland up to 19th in March rankings. They will move up to joint 18th next month despite not playing any games.


http://www.football-rankings.info/2012/03/fifa-ranking-april-2012-probable.html

The North are in for a rough time - down to 101 next month.

briany

Good for Ireland, but how the north has fallen! If they don't turn their slump around soon, they'll surely become a paid up member of the minnow pool.

roryc

Or maybe they'll join up with us and we can bag the next George Best...