GreenScene » Ireland up to 31st in FIFA World Rankings

Ireland up to 31st in FIFA World Rankings

29 June 2011 1,703 views 2 Comments Written by Ronan

The latest FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings have been announced, with the Republic of Ireland moving up three places to 31st.

Victories over Northern Ireland, Scotland, Macedonia, and Italy have seen Ireland gain 71 ranking points to move above Ghana and Paraguay into 31st. It’s our highest position since March 2009, when we were ranked 29th in the world. We are now the 20th highest European team in the table, sandwiched between Israel and Belgium.

World Cup finalists Spain and Netherlands hold onto their top two placings, while Germany and England have moved up to third and fourth respectively. This is thanks to recent disappointing results from both Brazil and Argentina, as well as the natural exclusion of Copa America 2007 from the latest rankings. Ireland’s Euro 2012 Group B opponents Russia have moved up one place to 17th, Slovakia drop two to 28th, Armenia have lost eight places and are now 70th, while Macedonia’s disappointing form sees them in 98th. Andorra are still joint last with 0 ranking points.

Scotland’s 3-0 win over Wales at the Carling Cup saw them overtake Northern Ireland into 61st, with our neighbours filling the next spot despite picking up no ranking points last month. Wales have held on to 114th in the table. Despite Ireland’s rise in places, we will still be seeded third for the World Cup 2014 draw, which takes place next month.

2 Comments »

IrishRI said:

If Robbie had put away the penalty agaist Slovakia we would be in Pot 2 for the World Cup draw. We almost made it even without that but we are in Pot 3. There are some top teams in Pot 2 so we’ll probably end up with a nightmare group. According to the ELO rankings (which are more accurate but not used by FIFA) we are about 20th in the world which would easily have put us into Pot 2.

# 1 July 2011 at 8:59 pm

Richie said:

Looking at the rapid rise of Montenegro, we really need to put some victories together over over our qualification rivals, as easy as that is to say. They racked up a couple of wins over Bulgaria and Switzerland and all of a sudden they’re up in 16th. We’ve been in the third seedings pot since 2004 and that’s about right seeing as we’ve failed to defeat one of the top 2 teams in any of our groups in the last decade. Being hard to beat will only get you so far. Pity that the World Cup draw is coming up so soon as a victory in either of our September games (if we can dare hope for such a thing) could have pushed us into that 2nd pot.

# 2 July 2011 at 12:20 am