Newest FIFA world rankings

It appears their inexplicable love affair with England is ending, dropping them down to a still far too high 5th place. Their hatred of Brazil continues however, leaving them 14th, inexplicably behind Greece and Croatia.

Top Eight -
1. Spain
2. Germany
3. Portugal
4. Argentina
5. England
6. Netherlands
7. Uruguay
8. Italy

Also of note - apparently making the Euro 2012 final isn't enough to be considered better than a team that got knocked out in the group stages with 0 points.

I always find the fifa rankings fascinating - they operate on a very complicated system that I looked up once a while ago

I can't remember too much about it other than following the next world cup, we should see the rankings start to make a little more sense.

How did Coleman-era Wales fare? Are we international relegation fodder now?

12 place drop, down to 57. Less said the better, really.

I fear it may get worse before it gets better

Arkay v2.0 wrote:I fear it may get worse before it gets better

Sadly, I don't think we will see a Welsh team qualify for a major tournament in out life time. Shame really.

Especially as I'm planning on dying young

Rhys wrote:

Arkay v2.0 wrote:I fear it may get worse before it gets better

Sadly, I don't think we will see a Welsh team qualify for a major tournament in out life time. Shame really.

Wales' qualification for the 1958 World Cup was very much by the back door method. They finished 2nd in their group of 3 behind Czechoslovakia, and only the top team in each group qualified. But the Africa/Asia qualifying group became a bit farcical - Israel were due to meet Turkey in Round 1, but Turkey withdrew after refusing to play in the Asia group. In the 2nd round, both Egypt and Indonesia both withdrew (the latter because their request to play Israel on neutral territory was refused). In the 3rd round, Sudan refused to play Israel for political reasons, so Israel finished winners without playing a game.

As FIFA rules said that only the holders and the hosts could qualify without playing a game, they set up a special play-off with one of the runners-up from the European groups. The first team drawn to play Israel was Belgium, but they refused (Israel were clearly popular back then!), so Wales were next out of the hat. Quite rightly not letting principles get in the way, Wales then won both legs 2-0 (Ivor Allchurch scored in each game).

So not exactly an outright qualification. I fear we'd need an equally convoluted and bizarre scenario for us to make it again!

Also worth noting that this was the only World Cup for which all four home nations qualified, but only Wales and Northern Ireland made it out of the groups, where Wales narrowly lost 1-0 to Brazil (scored by Pele). Our official tournament position was 6th. It brings a tear to the eye.

I knew we'd got through via a play off but I didn't know that background - that's amazing (if a little fortuitous)! Great knowledge Tonker Toy - have some flair. As I understand it, we gave Brazil a good run for their money too.

I once got Wales to win the World Cup on an older version of Championship Manager (97/98, I think) by playing Ultra-defensive (11 men camped in the box in a Christmas tree formation) and playing for penalties. Worked a treat even against the top teams!

The Tonker wrote:

Rhys wrote:

Arkay v2.0 wrote:I fear it may get worse before it gets better

Sadly, I don't think we will see a Welsh team qualify for a major tournament in out life time. Shame really.

Wales' qualification for the 1958 World Cup was very much by the back door method. They finished 2nd in their group of 3 behind Czechoslovakia, and only the top team in each group qualified. But the Africa/Asia qualifying group became a bit farcical - Israel were due to meet Turkey in Round 1, but Turkey withdrew after refusing to play in the Asia group. In the 2nd round, both Egypt and Indonesia both withdrew (the latter because their request to play Israel on neutral territory was refused). In the 3rd round, Sudan refused to play Israel for political reasons, so Israel finished winners without playing a game.

As FIFA rules said that only the holders and the hosts could qualify without playing a game, they set up a special play-off with one of the runners-up from the European groups. The first team drawn to play Israel was Belgium, but they refused (Israel were clearly popular back then!), so Wales were next out of the hat. Quite rightly not letting principles get in the way, Wales then won both legs 2-0 (Ivor Allchurch scored in each game).

So not exactly an outright qualification. I fear we'd need an equally convoluted and bizarre scenario for us to make it again!

Didn't know that ^^