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World Football Elo Ratings

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The World Football Elo Ratings (Elo is often pronounced E-L-O despite not being an initialism) is a ranking system for men's national teams in football. The method used to rank teams is based upon the Elo rating system method but modified to take various football-specific variables into account. Elo should not be confused with the FIFA World Rankings, which is more prevalent because it is the rating system used by the international governing body of football to rank men's national teams.

The ratings take into account all international "A" matches for which results could be found. Ratings tend to converge on a team's true strength relative to its competitors after about 30 matches. Ratings for teams with fewer than 30 matches should be considered provisional.

The FIFA Women's World Rankings uses a simplified version of the Elo formula. The FIFA men's ranking, however, uses a non-Elo formula.

Contents

[edit] Top 40 ranking

Current table, as of November 19, 2008, of the World Football Elo rankings, compiled by the World Football Elo Ratings web site.

Elo rank Nation Points Federation FIFA rank
1  Spain 2071 UEFA 1
2  Netherlands 1999 UEFA 4
3  Brazil 1994 CONMEBOL 5
4  Italy 1976 UEFA 3
5  England 1959 UEFA 10
6  Argentina 1952 CONMEBOL 6
7  Germany 1938 UEFA 2
8  France 1865 UEFA 12
9  Croatia 1855 UEFA 7
10  Russia 1853 UEFA 8
11  Paraguay 1835 CONMEBOL 17
12  Czech Republic 1817 UEFA 9
13  Mexico 1814 CONCACAF 25
14  Uruguay 1809 CONMEBOL 23
15  Romania 1803 UEFA 19
16  Turkey 1802 UEFA 13
17  Portugal 1793 UEFA 10
18  United States 1790 CONCACAF 24
19  Denmark 1786 UEFA 34
20  Chile 1778 CONMEBOL 35
Elo rank Nation Points Federation FIFA rank
21  Iran 1768 AFC 44
22  Switzerland 1764 UEFA 27
23  Japan 1760 AFC 38
24  Egypt 1757 CAF 21
 Serbia 1757 UEFA 30
26  Bulgaria 1751 UEFA 16
 Ukraine 1751 UEFA 20
28  Greece 1750 UEFA 18
29  Cameroon 1745 CAF 14
30  Australia 1742 AFC 37
31  Republic of Ireland 1741 UEFA 36
32  Nigeria 1733 CAF 22
33  Sweden 1732 UEFA 29
34  Colombia 1725 CONMEBOL 40
35  Israel 1717 UEFA 15
36  Côte d'Ivoire 1713 CAF 28
 Poland 1713 UEFA 32
38  Korea Republic 1707 AFC 53
39  Honduras 1706 CONCACAF 46
40  Scotland 1691 UEFA 33

Each national team's FIFA World Ranking is of November 12, 2008. [1]

[edit] Top 10 since 1970

The following is a list of the national teams with the highest average Elo score from Jan 1, 1970 to Dec 1, 2008. For a top 50, and top 20 lists per decade since the 1950s, see Strongest Football Nations by Elo Ratings

Rank Country Average Elo rating
1  Brazil 2005.1
2  Germany[1] 1971.2
3  Italy 1928.1
4  England 1921.3
5  Netherlands 1911.0
6  Argentina 1896.1
7  France 1888.2
8  Spain 1883.5
9  Russia[2] 1855.7
10  Czech Republic[3] 1845.4

[edit] List of number one teams

The following is the list of nations who have achieved the number one position on the World Football Elo Ratings in the last five years:

Start Date Nation # of days
September 10, 2003  France 291
June 27, 2004  Czech Republic 4
July 01, 2004  France 10
July 11, 2004  Brazil 3
July 14, 2004  France 35
August 18, 2004  Argentina 290
June 04, 2005  Czech Republic 4
June 08, 2005  Argentina 21
June 29, 2005  Brazil 102
October 09, 2005  Netherlands 3
October 12, 2005  Brazil 265
July 04, 2006  Italy 43
August 16, 2006  France 52
October 07, 2006  Brazil 122
February 06, 2007  France 1
February 07, 2007  Brazil 140
June 27, 2007  France 14
July 11, 2007  Argentina 4
July 15, 2007  Brazil 334
June 13, 2008  Brazil /  Netherlands 2
June 15, 2008  Netherlands 6
June 21, 2008  Spain -

Complete list since 1872: see World Football Elo Ratings leaders.

[edit] Ranking by Days as Leader since January 1, 2000

Nation # of days Last Date as Leader
 Brazil 1505 14 June 2008
 France 1115 10 July 2007
 Argentina 316 14 July 2007
 Netherlands 104 20 June 2008
 Italy 43 15 August 2006
 Czech Republic 8 7 June 2005
 Spain 4 [4] Current

[edit] All-time highest ratings

The following is a list of national football teams ranked by their highest Elo score ever reached.

Rank Nation Points Date
1  Hungary 2165 30 June 1954
2  Brazil 2153 17 June 1962
3  Argentina 2117 3 April 1957
4  France 2106 15 August 2001
5  Germany 2098 4 September 1974 (as West Germany)
6  Italy 2079 20 July 1939
7  Spain 2071 19 November 2008
8  Netherlands 2067 3 June 1978
9  Poland 2046 1 September 1974
10  England 2041 22 October 1966
11  Uruguay 2035 13 June 1928
12  Russia 2022 9 October 1983 (as Soviet Union)
13  Czech Republic 1999 27 June 2004
14  Austria 1998 31 May 1934
15  Portugal 1983 15 November 2000
16  Croatia 1967 11 July 1998
17  Yugoslavia 1962 25 June 1998 (as Federal Republic of Yugoslavia)
18  Denmark 1960 13 June 1986
19  Scotland 1953 10 March 1888
20  Sweden 1950 25 June 1950

[edit] History

This system, developed by Hungarian mathematician Dr. Árpád Élő, is used by FIDE, the international chess federation, to rate chess players. In 1997 Bob Runyan adapted the Elo rating system to international football and posted the results on the Internet. He was also the first maintainer of the World Football Elo Ratings web site.

[edit] Overview

The Elo system was adapted for football by adding a weighting for the kind of match, an adjustment for the home team advantage, and an adjustment for goal difference in the match result.

The factors taken into consideration when calculating a team's new rating are:

  • The team's old rating
  • The considered weight of the tournament
  • The goal difference of the match
  • The result of the match
  • The expected result of the match

The different weights of competitions in descending order are:

A large difference here is that FIFA ranks the Confederations Cup third highest while the Elo system ranks it fifth (treating Continental and World Cup qualifiers separately for the purposes of comparison, because FIFA does).

These ratings take into account all international "A" matches for which results could be found. Ratings tend to converge on a team's true strength relative to its competitors after about 30 matches. Ratings for teams with fewer than 30 matches should be considered provisional. Match data are primarily from International Football 1872 - Present web site.

[edit] Basic calculation principles

The basic principle behind the Elo ratings is only in its simplest form, similar to that of a league, unlike the FIFA tables who effectively run their table as a normal league table, but with weightings to take into account the other factors, the Elo system has its one formula which takes into account the factors mentioned above. There is no first step as in the FIFA system where a team immediately receives points for the result, there is just one calculation in the Elo system.

The ratings are based on the following formulas:

Rn = Ro + KG(W − We)

or

P = KG(W − We)

Where;

Rn = The new team rating
Ro = The old team rating
K = Weight index regarding the tournament of the match
G = A number from the index of goal differences
W = The result of the match
We = The expected result
P = Points Change

[edit] Status of match

The status of the match is incorporated by the use of a weight constant. The weight is a constant regarding the "weight" or importance of a match, defined by which tournament the match is in, they are as follows;

Tournament or Match type Index (K)
World Cup Finals 60
Continental Championship and Intercontinental Tournaments 50
World Cup and Continental qualifiers and major tournaments 40
All other tournaments 30
Friendly Matches 20

[edit] Number of goals

The number of goals is taken into account by use of a goal difference index. G is increased by half if a game is won by two goals, and if the game is won by three or more goals by a number decided through the appropriate calculation shown below;

If the game is won by one goal

G = 1

If the game is won by two goals

G = \frac{3}{2}

If the game is won by three or more goals

  • Where N is the goal difference
G = \frac{11+N}{8}

Table of examples:

Goal Difference Coefficient of K (G)
0 1
+1 1
+2 1.5
+3 1.75
+4 1.875
+5 2
+6 2.125
+7 2.25
+8 2.375
+9 2.5
+10 2.625

[edit] Result of match

W is the result of the game (1 for a win, 0.5 for a draw, and 0 for a loss).

[edit] Expected result of match

We is the expected result (win expectancy with a draw counting as 0.5) from the following formula:

W_e = \frac{1}{10^{-dr/400} + 1}

where dr equals the difference in ratings plus 100 points for a team playing at home. So dr of 0 gives 0.5, of 120 gives 0.666 to the higher ranked team and 0.334 to the lower, and of 800 gives 0.99 to the higher ranked team and 0.01 to the lower.

[edit] Examples

The same examples have been used on the FIFA World Rankings for a fair comparison. Some actual examples should help to make the methods of calculation clear. In this instance it is assumed that three teams of different strengths are involved in a small friendly tournament on neutral territory.

Before the tournament the three teams have the following point totals.

Team Points
A 630
B 500
C 480

Thus, team A is by some distance the highest ranked of the three: The following table shows the points allocations based on three possible outcomes of the match between the strongest team A, and the somewhat weaker team B:

[edit] Example 1

Team A versus Team B (Team A stronger than Team B)

Team A Team B Team A Team B Team A Team B
Score 3 : 1 1 : 3 2 : 2
K 20 20 20 20 20 20
G 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1 1
W 1 0 0 1 0.5 0.5
We 0.679 0.321 0.679 0.321 0.679 0.321
Total (P) +9.63 -9.63 -20.37 +20.37 -3.58 +3.58

[edit] Example 2

Team B versus Team C (both teams approximately the same strength)

When the difference in strength between the two teams is less, so also will be the difference in points allocation. The following table illustrates how the points would be divided following the same results as above, but with two roughly equally ranked teams, B and C, being involved:

Team B Team C Team B Team C Team B Team C
Score 3 : 1 1 : 3 2 : 2
K 20 20 20 20 20 20
G 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.5 1 1
W 1 0 0 1 0.5 0.5
We 0.529 0.471 0.529 0.471 0.529 0.471
Total (P) +14.13 -14.13 -15.87 +15.87 -0.58 +0.58

Note that Team B loses more ranking points by losing to Team C than by losing to Team A.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Germany was also called "West Germany" from 1949-1990
  2. ^ Includes the record of USSR
  3. ^ Includes the record of the Czechoslovakia
  4. ^ Does not include current period as rankings leader

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

International football
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