Gianni Infantino. Photo: Reuters
The international football Federation has announced the introduction of a new rating of national teams, which after 2018 will replace the existing one.
On Sunday, the FIFA Council took several important decisions, one concerning a new formula used to calculate the odds of all the teams in the world.
“After more than two years of study of various alternatives and extensive consultations with all confederations FIFA administration has suggested to the Council that FIFA changed the formula system, which was approved and will be first used after the world Cup 2018” – said in an official statement on the website of the International Federation.
“A group of sports experts and statisticians have developed a formula based on the Elo,” he told FIFA. Let me explain: Imre Arpad Elo, an American physicist of Hungarian origin, invented system of counting individual coefficients players used in chess. FIFA has previously taken for the basis of his method for rating women’s teams. Now here came the turn of men.
For what is everything made of? “To make the formula more accurate, to eliminate opportunities to manipulate the rating and to provide equal opportunities to all teams,” said FIFA.
Now is taken into account “weight” of the match – the relative strength of opponents and the importance of each game. Depending on this ratio the team will be added to points or Vice versa it decreases. A smaller value will have friendly matches. Conversely, the greatest weight will receive the final rounds of the world championship.
In General, the formula looks like this:
P = Pbefore + I x (W – We)
Pbefore – points, which was the team before the match that counts.
I – match importance. It varies in the following way:
I = 5 for friendly matches that are not held on days established by the international calendar.
I = 10 for friendly matches that are held on days established by the international calendar.
I = 15 – group stage matches of the League of Nations;
I = 25 – qualifying matches and the matches of the final stage of the League of Nations;
I = 25 – qualifying matches confederations Championships (e.g. European Championships) and world Championships;
I = 35 – matches of the final tournaments of the Championships of the confederations to the quarter-finals;
I = 40 matches of the final tournaments of the Championships of the confederations, starting with the quarterfinals, and all matches of the FIFA confederations Cup;
I = 50 – the matches of the final tournament of the world championship to the quarter-finals;
I = 60 matches of the final tournament of the world Cup since the quarterfinals.
W – match result (1 = win, 0,5 = draw, 0 = loss).
We – expected result of the match (We = 1/10 (-dr/600) + 1), where dr is the difference in ratings of the two opponents).
After every game included in the official roster of FIFA, a computer program will carry out the recalculation of the ranking of each of the playing teams. For the first time this happens in July after the world Cup.
One of the main advantages of this system of counting in the rating of FIFA said that it “will ensure a smooth transition” from the old to the new system. In addition, the glasses won a few years ago, would not lose its value, as has happened before. And teams don’t have to cheat, avoiding friendlies. Disappear ratio of the Confederacy, which to some extent complicated the task, the teams from Europe and South America.
Alexander BOBROV, the Sport-Express
BEST TEAMS IN THE WORLD (TOP 10)
The FIFA rankings
1. Germany 1558
2. Brazil 1431
3. Belgium 1298
4. Portugal 1274
5. Argentina 1241
6. Switzerland 1199
7. France 1198
8. Poland 1183
9. Chile 1135
10. Spain 1126
Elo Rating
1. Brazil 2142
2. Germany 2077
3. Spain 2044
4. France 1987
5. Argentina 1986
6. Portugal 1970
7. England 1948
8. Belgium 1933
9. Colombia 1928
10. Peru 1915