Scots close in on England ranking

[Kev]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/7059726.stm

 

Scotland are on the verge of overtaking England after rising to their highest position in the Fifa world rankings.

Despite their 2-0 loss in Georgia, the Scots have moved from 14th to 13th - two places behind England, who fell to 11th from ninth after losing to Russia.

 

The top nine teams will be seeded for the 2010 World Cup qualifying rounds.

 

Argentina head the rankings, Brazil are second, Italy third, the managerless Republic of Ireland are 32nd, Northern Ireland 36th and Wales 58th.

 

If Scotland maintain their current position, they will qualify for the second group of seeds, a significant improvement from their Euro 2008 campaign, where they were among the fourth-ranked teams.

 

And their position could improve further if the Scots beat world champions Italy in their final Euro 2008 qualifier on 17 November, a match they must win to reach the finals next year.

 

606: DEBATE

Give your thoughts on Scotland's advance in the world rankings 

 

It is a tough assignment for Alex McLeish's side against the World Cup holders, but they have reason for hope after taking maximum points from their previous home qualifying games against the Faroes, France, Georgia, Lithuania and the Ukraine.

 

England's hopes of finishing in the top nine have been severely dented following their defeat in Moscow.

 

The battle for qualification from Group E is now out of England's hands.

 

Croatia need only one point from their remaining two games to qualify. Russia will qualify if they win their remaining two games, while England, who play Croatia at Wembley in their last game, need Russia to slip up.

 

Meanwhile, the Republic's failure to qualify for the tournament in Austria and Switzerland led to the Football Association of Ireland terminating the contract of manager Steve Staunton by mutual consent.

 

 

AND PEOPLE SAY THE SCOTS ARE USELESS AND ENGLAND ARE MUCH BETTER..

[Mr. Snrub]

Fifa World Rankings means sod all, tbh.

[Dokko]

The Scots deserve the rise, and we deserve the fall.

 

Can't say anything but that.

[Keefaz]

They'll soon have caught up with the likes of the Ukraine!

[Guest gggg]

Fifa World Rankings means sod all, tbh.

 

Apart from deciding the seedings for the world cup.

[Guest elbee909]

AND PEOPLE SAY THE SCOTS ARE USELESS AND ENGLAND ARE MUCH BETTER..

 

Only the Scots care.

[ross magoo]

I think 14th is a bit of an exaggeration at this moment in time but it probably comes from the fact that we won six games in a row before the defeat to Georgia.  That's our best run of results since 1946 so it was always going to push us up the rankings.  If we beat Italy and qualify for Euro 2008 (big if) then I think we'll deserve our top 20 status.

 

I'm not fussed about overtaking England tbh.  For me, following the national team isn't about England, it's about Scotland.  Unfortunately there will be a fair few of my countrymen who will go bananas and start singing about things that happened 800 years ago if we overtake you lads.  Small nation mentality, you'll just have to excuse/ignore them.

[Guest Li3nZ]

I work in Scoland and general consensus in the office is that they are the better team . It's hilarious.

[Guest alex]

I work in Scoland and general consensus in the office is that they are the better team . It's hilarious.

Well they play as a team. England would have been absolutely fucked if they'd been in their group too.

[Guest thenorthumbrian]

I think that there is less arrogance from the players and hype from the media surrounding Scotland than England so I like to see them do well.

I gave up on England years ago and couldn't give a toss whether they qualify for anything in future. 

[Guest alex]

I think that there is less arrogance from the players and hype from the media surrounding Scotland than England so I like to see them do well.

I gave up on England years ago and couldn't give a toss whether they qualify for anything in future. 

Really? I don't think you've mentioned that before.

[Guest Ridzuan]

I think judging from their recent performance,they truly deserve it.Ive been very impressed by Scotland recently and England has to improve quickly because I dont think many englishmen would like to see Scotland being on top of England in the FIFA ranking.

[Guest Li3nZ]

I work in Scoland and general consensus in the office is that they are the better team . It's hilarious.

Well they play as a team. England would have been absolutely f***** if they'd been in their group too.

 

To a certain extent. The likes of packing your own half with men, getting battered all match and then nicking a win in France with a hopeful pot shot is not something they can sustain. They'll become undone shortly, as usual, if the Geordia game isn't that already.

 

At least we know and admit we're playing crap, from what I'm hearing you would think they were serious world cup contenders.

[Guest Li3nZ]

I think judging from their recent performance,they truly deserve it.Ive been very impressed by Scotland recently and England has to improve quickly because I dont think many englishmen would like to see Scotland being on top of England in the FIFA ranking.

 

I assume you're not including their latest match? What about England's home game against Russia and Isreal where we looked as good as we have ever done? Swings and roundabouts.

[Guest alex]

I work in Scoland and general consensus in the office is that they are the better team . It's hilarious.

Well they play as a team. England would have been absolutely f***** if they'd been in their group too.

 

To a certain extent. The likes of packing your own half with men, getting battered all match and then nicking a win in France with a hopeful pot shot is not something they can sustain. They'll become undone shortly, as usual, if the Geordia game isn't that already.

 

At least we know and admit we're playing crap, from what I'm hearing you would think they were serious world cup contenders.

I can understand their enjoying it at the moment like. This is as good as it gets for them to be fair. I actually fancy us to just scrape through and them to miss out though.

[thewellander]

The FIFA rankings are meaningless, but Scotland deserves credit for what they've accomplished. I can't wait for the Scotland v Italy match next month.

[Guest alijmitchell]

The fact is they play as a team and manage to grind out wins through their commitment to the cause rather than technical ability. They really are, in footballing terms, a poor side, and if they do qualify, will find it hard to sustain 90minutes of 11 men behind a ball during a major competition. They have hampden park too which is really quite an intimidating atmosphere for any team to go to, and certainly helps them when it comes to putting pressure on the referee to overlook the obvious over-physical/niggly nature of their game which will not be tolerated during the euros. If the scots seriously think they are a good footballing side, they are deluded, and moreover, they would make sure everyone knew about it if they overtook us in the rankings, regardless of the fact that england fans a) generally couldn't give a fuck about fifa rankings, and b) judge the success of their team in terms of winning competitions (even though we NEVER do.) rather than say, rising in the rankings above germany, france or argentina. It would also be nice to see a scot admitting to this rather than coming up with a 'look how rubbish england are' reply when talking about their national team. Anyway, here's hoping Italy beat them and we can all breathe a sigh of relief when we inevitably fail to qualify too!

[GM]

When it comes to playing as a team, you have to concede that Scotland have put the English team to shame at times. Wee 'Eck has got them playing for each other in a way Second Choice Steve could only dream about.

[macbeth]

The ratings are wonderfully worked out,  and are amazingly accurate.

 

They look at the last 4 years worth of results, to avoid the nonsense that a single win in Paris may make to a team's ranking. Games played  in the last year count 100% to your points total, sliding down the scale to only being worth 20% of their face value if they are 4 years old.

 

You get more points for winning a competitive game than a friendly, you get more points for results gained against a more highly rated side than a lowere one. (So beating France is better than beating the Faroe Isles).

 

So Scotland beating France would get them 3 points for the win, a 3 times multiplier for it being a Euro qualifier, a 1.94 multiplier as France were ranked 6th in the world, so roughly 17.5 points. When Scotland beat tghe Faroes Isles they got 3 points, a 3 times mulitipled for Euro, but a 0.07 multiplier as the Faroe Isles were ranked 193 in the World. So 0.6 points.

 

You don't get up the top of the list unless you get results against sides above you. Scotland have twice fluked wins over France, and have beaten Ukraine has made all the difference to their results. England beating 37th ranked Israel, and 130th ranked Estonia has no great benefit.

 

Last time England beat a team above them was the Argentina friendly, in a competitive game it was Argentina in the 2002 World Cup.

 

[ross magoo]

They have hampden park too which is really quite an intimidating atmosphere for any team to go to, and certainly helps them when it comes to putting pressure on the referee to overlook the obvious over-physical/niggly nature of their game which will not be tolerated during the euros.

 

I'm not sure I agree with that.  Hampden isn't even the most intimmidating venue in Scotland.  The crowd is miles from the pitch.  It certainly lent us no influence over the referee in our last two home games.  We were denied two stone-wall penalties against Ukraine and had a penalty awarded against us for a blatant dive in the Lithuania game.  We won those two games in spite of the referee rather than because of him.

[macbeth]

They have hampden park too which is really quite an intimidating atmosphere for any team to go to, and certainly helps them when it comes to putting pressure on the referee to overlook the obvious over-physical/niggly nature of their game which will not be tolerated during the euros.

 

I'm not sure I agree with that.  Hampden isn't even the most intimmidating venue in Scotland.  The crowd is miles from the pitch.  It certainly lent us no influence over the referee in our last two home games.  We were denied two stone-wall penalties against Ukraine and had a penalty awarded against us for a blatant dive in the Lithuania game.  We won those two games in spite of the referee rather than because of him.

 

but the place bounces, in a way it never will when England play at Wembley

[colinmk]

They have hampden park too which is really quite an intimidating atmosphere for any team to go to, and certainly helps them when it comes to putting pressure on the referee to overlook the obvious over-physical/niggly nature of their game which will not be tolerated during the euros.

 

I'm not sure I agree with that.  Hampden isn't even the most intimmidating venue in Scotland.  The crowd is miles from the pitch.  It certainly lent us no influence over the referee in our last two home games.  We were denied two stone-wall penalties against Ukraine and had a penalty awarded against us for a blatant dive in the Lithuania game.  We won those two games in spite of the referee rather than because of him.

 

Yeah Hampden aint all its cracked up to be because of that very point, the crowd are amazing for the Scotland games but when they are that far away I don't think it has the same impact. If we had 60,000 Scotland fans at Parkhead however, that would really put the shits up the opposition. I hope England and Scotland both qualify tbh, will be amazing if we get each other in the group stages. And on the point about the team being pretty poor footballers, that would be correct but for a nation the size of Scotland you don't get 10 top class footballers in the same lifetime very often so you have to use what you have. Thats why we have done so well.

[ross magoo]

They have hampden park too which is really quite an intimidating atmosphere for any team to go to, and certainly helps them when it comes to putting pressure on the referee to overlook the obvious over-physical/niggly nature of their game which will not be tolerated during the euros.

 

I'm not sure I agree with that.  Hampden isn't even the most intimmidating venue in Scotland.  The crowd is miles from the pitch.  It certainly lent us no influence over the referee in our last two home games.  We were denied two stone-wall penalties against Ukraine and had a penalty awarded against us for a blatant dive in the Lithuania game.  We won those two games in spite of the referee rather than because of him.

 

but the place bounces, in a way it never will when England play at Wembley

 

That's probably got more to do with our drink culture than anything else.  It's easy to jump around shouting and singing when you're pure blootered 

[macbeth]

They have hampden park too which is really quite an intimidating atmosphere for any team to go to, and certainly helps them when it comes to putting pressure on the referee to overlook the obvious over-physical/niggly nature of their game which will not be tolerated during the euros.

 

I'm not sure I agree with that.  Hampden isn't even the most intimmidating venue in Scotland.  The crowd is miles from the pitch.  It certainly lent us no influence over the referee in our last two home games.  We were denied two stone-wall penalties against Ukraine and had a penalty awarded against us for a blatant dive in the Lithuania game.  We won those two games in spite of the referee rather than because of him.

 

but the place bounces, in a way it never will when England play at Wembley

 

That's probably got more to do with our drink culture than anything else.  It's easy to jump around shouting and singing when you're pure blootered 

 

and for 10 years the players have playde like that too