Well, FIFA overhauled their ranking system during the World Cup, and released the new post World Cup rankings yesterday. Apparently they only count the last 4 years of results instead of the last 8 years (good move) and no longer take into account home field advantage or the number of goals a team scores (not so good move?). Anyway, here are the new top 20:
Rank Team Pts:
Jul 06 +/-Rank
May 06 +/-Pts:
May 06
1 Brazil 1630 0 803
2 Italy 1550 11 822
3 Argentina 1472 6 726
4 France 1462 4 713
5 England 1434 5 693
6 Netherlands 1322 -3 554
7 Spain 1309 -2 553
8 Portugal 1301 -1 551
9 Germany 1229 10 533
10 Czech Republic 1223 -8 451
11 Nigeria 1149 0 413
12 Cameroon 1109 3 387
13 Switzerland 1028 22 380
14 Uruguay 985 8 296
15 Ukraine 961 30 352
16 USA 933 -11 177
17 Denmark 927 -6 191
18 Mexico 924 -14 166
19 Paraguay 915 14 262
20 Côte d'Ivoire 909 12 240
I don't disagree too strenuously with most of the top 20. The US fell to #16, which is right about where I would have them. Mexico dropped too much though. They did outplay Argentina. I think Germany are too low at 9, but since they didn't play any WC qualifiers, this is understandable. I hate to say it, but I think Portugal should probably be a bit higher. Sweden are definitely too low at #22, and Australia at 33 and Ecuador at 28 probably deserved to fare a little bit better. I'd probably drop England a couple of spots. On the other hand, it was nice to see Switzerland move up 22 spots to #13 and Ukraine 30 spots to #15, both right about where I would have them. Ghana also moved up 23 spots to #25. Somehow Nigeria are #11 though, which baffles me. Asia really suffered in the new rankings. Japan dropped 31 spots, Iran dropped 24 spots, S Korea dropped 27 spots, and Saudi Arabia dropped 47 spots. Ouch! Overall, I think the new rankings make more sense than the old ones, though of course still not perfect.
, although when are we ever likely to agree on anything? 
He will now have to change his signature.
