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World Footy Rankings - the inaugural list

Authored by: snap1
on Monday, September 13 2010 @ 06:02 am ACST

Canada ranked lower then sweden and peace team? that made me laugh.

World Footy Rankings - the inaugural list

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Monday, September 13 2010 @ 11:00 am ACST

No, they are not ranked lower than the Peace Team. The Peace Team have not played enough games to be ranked - they are shown without a ranking and in grey to indicate where they are provisionally placed. If they played a few more games against similarly positioned teams they would probably lose and quickly fall below Canada.

Sweden are just ahead of Canada. I'm guessing that's due to two factors - their good performance at the European Championships including a win against Great Britain, and an admitted weakness in our system currently, which I think of as the US-Canada effect. Because those two teams always play each other each year and the US almost always win it continuously pushed the US up and Canada down. Because they are not a long way apart in ranking, it continues to make a difference (if one was a long way ahead of the other than then beating their lower ranked rival would yield no ranking points and not cause this problem). The trouble is that they are similar in strength, so one might expect that if they are similar in ability then Canada would win now and then, but for some reason, despite performing better at some International Cups, they have off the top of my head I think only 1 win over the US. More interplay between teams across the rankings would help adjust this, but I agree it is my biggest concern for this system.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

World Footy Rankings - the inaugural list

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Monday, September 13 2010 @ 11:17 am ACST

Although I agree Canada should probably be a bit higher, quick sift through all the games shows this for Canada:

lost to US
lost to US
lost to US
lost to GB
lost to Denmark
lost to US
lost to Ireland
lost to Ireland
beat South Africa (who were very low then)
lost to NZ
lost to US
lost to Samoa
beat Japan
lost to US
lost to US
lost to Ireland
lost to PNG
lost to Samoa
lost to GB
won on forfeit over Spain
beat South Africa
lost to US
lost to US
beat US (it finally happened!)
beat Finland
beat Sweden
lost to Ireland
beat Japan
lost to Nauru
lost to US
lost to US

A lot of those losses were by over 40 points as well, which we consider a bonus situation (they are downgraded more severely). It will take a while to recover ranking points for so many losses. Perhaps with relatively few matches in the system Sweden are a bit it higher too, hence getting over Canada, although they are improving. And it's easy to judge Sweden on just IC form, whereas in Europe they have performed better. But certainly if Canada played Sweden tomorrow I'd expect Canada to still be too strong.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

World Footy Rankings - the inaugural list

Authored by: Rod Shaw
on Monday, September 13 2010 @ 12:55 pm ACST

Would it be possible to hyperlink the teams so that you could click and see their results- scores, opposition, country game played and year?

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

World Footy Rankings - the inaugural list

Authored by: Cam Homes
on Monday, September 13 2010 @ 05:43 pm ACST

G'day Rod.
Brett has already published all the matches played with scores, dates etc. used to arrive at the ranks as they stood just before the 2010 Euro Champs. He did it in several instalments in some articles back in August. He should be able to tell you where to look better than I.
Cam

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

World Footy Rankings - the inaugural list

Authored by: Brett Northey
on Monday, September 13 2010 @ 09:47 pm ACST

It would take a fair bit more work to have each team linked to meaningful pages. But as Cam said, I did list eligible matches recently, just type in world rankings in the search window above left.

Later on we'll have a world rankings page where all that data can easily be accessed and kept up to date. I guess we need a FAQ, because people ask a lot of questions and we've got answers spread out over various stories and comments over the last few months.

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN

World Footy Rankings - the inaugural list

Authored by: Cam Homes
on Monday, September 13 2010 @ 05:35 pm ACST

Brett, I'd really like to see that Canada v Sweden match, ya see I reckon it would be a close one. But Gee! I could be wrong! But Gee! so could you! The ultimate test is that unplayed match. If you go back thru the results of all the matches the higher ranked team wins more often than not and that is the real test of the scheme.
Cam

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Brett Northey - Co-founder and Chief Editor of WFN