How FIFA Ranks the Euro 2008 Teams

The FIFA World Rankings for May were released recently, the final world rankings before Euro 2008 begins. So here’s how FIFA ranks the Euro 2008 teams, one to 16, with their actual FIFA World Ranking in brackets. For the record, Argentina and Brazil are one and two respectively.

1. Italy (3)
2. Spain (4)
3. Germany (5)
4. Czech Republic (6)
5. France (7)
6. Greece (8)
7. Portugal (9)
8. Netherlands (10)
9. Romania (12)
10. Croatia (13)
11. Sweden (23)
=12. Turkey (=25)
=12. Russia (=25)
14. Poland (27)
15. Switzerland (48)
16. Austria (101)

So what did we learn here? Probably not a great deal. Greece are probably higher than most would expect, but their position shouldn’t be a surprise. They get huge points for winning Euro 2004, and so they should.

Can’t help noticing Austria and Switzerland though. The co-hosts are the bottom two teams, and by some distance too. If this was a league table they’d both be relegated out of Euro 2008.

Switzerland can maybe attribute their 48th place to not playing any qualifying games (automatic qualification is great and all, but you lose a lot of FIFA World Ranking Points for not playing competitive games). But Austria? As the only team in the tournament with a FIFA World Ranking that has three digits, you have to fear for them.