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FIFA Adopts New World Soccer Rating System

After many eyebrows were raised and questions asked, FIFA is finally adopting a new world soccer ranking system. What got most people thinking is how come the United States is ranked at number 4, way head of world soccer powers such as French, at 8, and Argentina, at 9. FIFA said that they are changing the system and will make it more accurate and reflective for real world status. The new system will be released on July 12.

Under the new ranking system, FIFA will take into account games played over the last four years. Under the old system, it counted results over the last eight, which distorted current form. The new system takes into account most of the same factors, but weights them differently.

Under the old system, FIFA gave the most weight to games in the World Cup finals, the continental championships and World Cup qualifiers. The region in which the United States is grouped, CONCACAF, plays a continental championship every two years. In Europe, it`s every four. In addition, CONCACAF plays almost 50 percent more World Cup qualifiers than the average European country. Under the new system, FIFA will adjust for these factors - and adjust more for the relatively weak CONCACAF group.