In what seems to be more farcical as the months and years go by, FIFA's excellent statistical anylsis of the various international teams has really stepped up a notch this month.Some how, some one, some where never thought about adding some common sense to this automatically generated "Points" system. Looking at their rankings, we are to believe that Mexico are better than both England AND France! Even more extrodinary the USA are meant to be better than the two European sides too (we are talking football, right? not some sport like basketball or baseball where it is pretty much the only played/watched in the one country.) As it is they were put inextricably further up the list than the likes of Turkey, Germany, Spain, what more France, England and Italy!
FIFA have pretty much got it right in the sense of who is in the top 20, but are totally out of whack as to where each country's position logically lies. For example I wouldn't expect Sweden, Ireland, Uruguay or even Greece to be sweating bullets at the thought of meeting Iran or Japan (who are both ranked higher - the latter is ranked even higher that Italy!) Okay so Italy maybe in a slump right now, but they're not in a grave!
A more logical order is listed below (followed by FIFA's bizzare results):
Some common sense:
| Rank | Country | ±FIFA | Rank | Country | ±FIFA |
| 1 | | 0 | 11 | | +3 |
| 2= | | 0 | 12 | | 0 |
| 2= | Czech Rep | +1 | 13 | | +2 |
| 2= | | +1 | 14 | | +3 |
| 5= | | +3 | 15 | | - 9 |
| 5= | | +2 | 16 | | +2 |
| 7 | | +1 | 17 | | +2 |
| 8 | | +2 | 17 | | - 4 |
| 9 | | +2 | 19 | | 0 |
| 10 | | - 5 | 20 | | - 5 |
FIFA's Insanity:
| Rank | Team | +/-Rank Jun 05 | Pts: Jul 05 | +/-Pts: Jun 05 |
| 1 | Brazil | 0 | 846 | 17 |
| 2 | Argentina | 1 | 787 | 2 |
| 3 | Netherlands | 1 | 781 | -2 |
| 4 | Czech Republic | -2 | 778 | -12 |
| 5 | Mexico | 1 | 768 | 9 |
| 6 | USA | 4 | 765 | 21 |
| 7 | France | -2 | 749 | -16 |
| 8 | England | -1 | 744 | -13 |
| 8 | Spain | 1 | 744 | -3 |
| 10 | Portugal | -2 | 739 | -16 |
| 11 | Germany | 10 | 723 | 28 |
| 12 | Turkey | 2 | 716 | -3 |
| 13 | Japan | 5 | 715 | 5 |
| 14 | Italy | -3 | 713 | -12 |
| 15 | Iran | 2 | 711 | 0 |
| 15 | Republic of Ireland | 0 | 711 | -3 |
| 17 | Sweden | -5 | 710 | -12 |
| 18 | Uruguay | 0 | 703 | -7 |
| 19 | Denmark | -3 | 698 | -15 |
| 19 | Greece | -6 | 698 | -22 |
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