FIFA secretary attempts to defend indefensible rankings system

When England are fourth in the world football rankings and Brazil are outside the top ten, you know there’s something amiss, but not according to the powers that be.

England’s lofty standing in the world game was widely and rightly ridiculed earlier this week when they somehow found themselves as the fourth highest ranked team in the world despite failing to reach the semi-final of a major tournament since Euro ’96.

Only Spain, Germany and Uruguay are ranked higher than England at the moment, even though every football fan worth his or her salt knows that England aren’t the fourth best team in the world, nor have they been for quite a long time.

Attempting to explain the ranking system and why such an anomaly might exist, FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke told Press Association Sport: "I know that these rankings are sometimes quite difficult to understand due to the level and numbers of criteria that are taken into account.

"There are teams who are playing more friendly games than other teams and you can see a difference which is not very logical, but the ranking I would say is clearly still a good picture of the level of international football."

Commenting on Brazil’s exclusion from the top ten, Valcke added: "Brazil are not playing official games, just friendly games as they are already qualified. There have been internal meetings and also with the football committee to discuss the ranking of the different nations. We want to be able to explain in an easier way how this ranking is based."

With Brazil not playing any competitive games until the 2014 World Cup, their ranking could potentially fall even lower as ranking points gained in friendlies – deemed so important by Giovanni Trapattoni – are not worth as much as those gained from competitive matches.

The Fifa rankings are based on an international side's results over the previous four years, with more points awarded from competitive matches than qualifiers, and weighted even more strongly towards matches in the final tournaments of World Cups and continental tournaments such as European Championships.

While it nice for the higher ranked nations to be able to look down condescendingly on their international counterparts, a higher ranking position is also beneficial in that it determines World Cup seedings, which can prove crucial over the course of a qualifying campaign.

Ireland supporters shouldn’t really complain about the ranking system as our all too brief entry into the top 20 earlier this year owed a lot to our performances in friendlies, but there’s something not quite right when Brazil – even if this might not be a vintage era for the five-time World Cup winners – aren’t amongst the world elite.