FIFA world rankings

[1960]

I know I'm a little late with this one, but WTF? Portugal are now (end of April) third, despite having to play off for World Cup qualification while England, who lost just one game, are 8th. And Croatia, who didn't even qualify, are 9th. On top of that Capello has an excellent friendly record, so where is our weak record from?

The official FIFA site says it has "devalued" results from a year ago. That doesn't alter the fact that Portugal stumbled through qualification. So what sensational results have Portugal been getting to put them third?

[leww_rfc]

Do friendlies add to World Rankings?

[SpaceCruiser]

Do friendlies add to World Rankings?

They shouldn't, really.

[papereyes]

Do friendlies add to World Rankings?

Yes, but no

They can do. They pick the best X results from a given period of time and do some maths of them based on the teams played and in what stages of which competition. I just can't remember what X is. They also extend for several years, with more recent years getting more weighting than earlier ones. My hunch is that the 2008 campaigns are still present so its a case of their being filtered out.

They also under-estimate UEFA and CONMEBOL in their maths, imo, which is why you get some truly ridiculous things. Within a confederation, they're pretty accurate.

Also - fifa.com actually does explain it somewhere and shows how its calculated.