World Cup 2010 Blog: FIFA to Replace World Ranking System With Fan Voting

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FIFA to Replace World Ranking System With Fan Voting Posted: 01 Apr 2010 08:13 AM PDT The latest FIFA World Rankings were released yesterday, and everything looked very familiar with Spain, Brazil and the Netherlands making up the top three. But all that’s about to change. Because after years of complaints about the ranking system, FIFA is finally willing to admit that it doesn’t work. The current system uses international results from the past four years and a mathematic formula to weigh the importance of those games and award points accordingly. It’s all very studious, yet the result is a ranking table that no one can agree on. So in a move similar to the new Man of the Match award, FIFA will open up the rankings to a public vote, starting from immediately after World Cup 2010. “We feel it’s important to give fans what they want,” said FIFA chief Sepp Blatter. “We recognize the unpopularity of our current ranking and seeding system and are making these adjustments so that football fans around the world will finally have a ranking table they believe in.” Fans will be encouraged to submit a list of their top 20 current international football teams via FIFA’s website, and the results will then be collated into the new FIFA Fan’s World Ranking table, beginning in late August of this year. I have the same reservations about this as I do about the Man of the Match voting. It’s obviously open to partisanship and all kinds of other external biases. But football is supposed to be the people’s game, not the mathematician’s, and so I’ll be interested to see how this works out. Who do you think will be top of the first FIFA Fan’s World Ranking in August 2010?

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