We normally reserve place for sports on the Saturday edition of our newspaper in our leading articles section. But we felt that today, we had to comment on the ludicrous workings of the Fifa rankings system.
England have risen to their best ever position in the Fifa world rankings – third – despite losing to Italy in the quarter finals of the European Championship.
Roy Hodgson’s side have moved to third above Uruguay, whose 2011 Copa America victory has lost value in Fifa’s system. England topped their group in the competition, but were completely outclassed by the Italians in the quarter finals and most England fans agree that it was a very lacklustre championship in the end.
Spain retained the top spot and stayed ahead of Germany, who Italy also knocked out in the competition.
Five-times world champions Brazil, who do not have to qualify for the 2014 World Cup as hosts, continued their fall and have reached a record low of 13th.
The decline is due to the fact that they have played fewer top-level matches in 2012 than some of the other leading nations, and despite reaching the final at London 2012, their ranking will not receive a major boost in September as the Olympics is not a points-scoring competition.
It really is beyond belief. The rankings are compiled every month and everyone has been left scratching their heads as to how England are enjoying third place – it simply makes no sense.
Although Italy suffered a drubbing in the final, they are surely more deserving of a higher placing than England, and, for that matter, Uruguay and Germany.
Perhaps it is time that Fifa rethought the way it compiles its rankings because they seem to make sense to no one – even the most ardent and biased of fans.
It also makes people wonder just how statistics are actually compiled. We saw what can happen when books are cooked – like the debacle in Greece.
There’s a joke amongst statisticians which says that given an end figure, anyone with a little creativity can work backwards and reach the desired result – similar, perhaps, to what happens with the Fifa rankings.
But what about when it is something more important? How do statisticians work out deficit percentages and debt levels? How do they crunch the numbers with unemployment and economic growth?
On the flip side, how do the credit rating agencies work out debt spreads according to interest rates? We ask the question, is it all fixed? Is it all just a game? Is it a means to justify the end? Whatever the case may be, England do not deserve that ranking and whoever came up with the workings that places them there is either a comedian or just plain bonkers.