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The World Football Elo Ratings (Elo is often pronounced E-L-O despite not being an acronym) 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 more prevalent FIFA World Rankings, which is the rating system used by FIFA, the international governing body of football.

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 1 Top 40 ranking 2 Top 10 since 1970 3 List of number one teams 4 Ranking by Days as Leader since January 1, 2000 5 All-time highest ratings 6 History 7 Overview 8 Basic calculation principles 8.1 Status of match 8.2 Number of goals 8.3 Result of match 8.4 Expected result of match 8.5 Examples 8.5.1 Example 1 8.5.2 Example 2 9 See also 10 External links

Current table, as of December 8, 2007, of the World Football Elo rankings, compiled by the World Football Elo Ratings web site based on data provided by Advanced Satellite Consulting.

Elo rank Nation Points Federation FIFA rank 1  Brazil 2054 CONMEBOL 2 2  Italy 2002 UEFA 3 3  Argentina 1991 CONMEBOL 1 4  France 1985 UEFA 7 5  Spain 1935 UEFA 4 6  Netherlands 1916 UEFA 9 7  Czech Republic 1915 UEFA 6 7  Germany 1915 UEFA 5 9  England 1881 UEFA 12 10  Romania 1876 UEFA 13 11  Croatia 1867 UEFA 10 12  Mexico 1863 CONCACAF 15 13  Portugal 1851 UEFA 8 14  Paraguay 1823 CONMEBOL 21 15  Colombia 1815 CONMEBOL 17 16  Greece 1807 UEFA 11 17  Turkey 1784 UEFA 16 18  Switzerland 1781 UEFA 44 19  Denmark 1776 UEFA 31 19  Uruguay 1776 CONMEBOL 27

Elo rank Nation Points Federation FIFA rank 21  Côte d'Ivoire 1775 CAF 37 22  Sweden 1771 UEFA 24 23  Iran 1767 AFC 40 24  Russia 1759 UEFA 22 25  Bulgaria 1758 UEFA 18 26  Poland 1753 UEFA 23 27  Ghana 1752 CAF 43 28  USA 1748 CONCACAF 19 28  Japan 1748 AFC 33 30  Nigeria 1745 CAF 20 31  Norway 1742 UEFA 28 32  Republic of Ireland 1741 UEFA 35 33  Scotland 1731 UEFA 14 34  Cameroon 1728 CAF 24 35  Serbia 1724 UEFA 30 36  Australia 1714 AFC 48 37  Israel 1713 UEFA 26 38  Chile 1705 CONMEBOL 45 39  Ukraine 1703 UEFA 29 40  Egypt 1688 CAF 41

The following is a list of the national teams with the highest average Elo score from Jan 1, 1970 to Nov 1, 2007. 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	2004.4
2	Germany[1]	1972.2
3	Italy	1926.3
4	England	1921.9
5	Netherlands	1909.5
6	Argentina	1893.4
7	France	1886.7
8	Spain	1880.4
9	Russia[2]	1857.5
10	Czech Republic[3]	1844.8

1. ^ Germany was also called "West Germany" from 1949-1990
2. ^ Includes the record of USSR
3. ^ Includes the record of the Czechoslovakia

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
June 21, 2002	Brazil	351
June 07, 2003	Netherlands	4
June 11, 2003	Brazil	8
June 19, 2003	Netherlands	83
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	-

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

Nation	# of days	Last Date as Leader
Brazil	1169 [4]	Current
France	1115	10 July 2007
Argentina	316	14 July 2007
Netherlands	96	9 October 2005
Italy	43	15 August 2006
Czech Republic	8	7 June 2005
Spain	4	15 June 2002

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

The following is a list of national football teams ranked by their highest Elo score ever reached until November 1, 2007.

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	Netherlands	2067	3 June 1978
8	Poland	2046	1 September 1974
9	England	2041	22 October 1966
10	Uruguay	2035	13 June 1928
11	Russia	2022	9 October 1983 (as Soviet Union)
12	Spain	2007	24 September 1997
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	Serbia	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

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.

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;

• World Cup Finals
• Continental championships finals
• World Cup and Continental championship qualifiers
• All other tournaments
• Friendly matches

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.

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:

R_n = R_o + KG(W − W_e)

or

P = KG(W − W_e)

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

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

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

If the game is won by three or more goals

• Where N is the goal difference

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

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

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

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.

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:

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

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.

• FIFA World Rankings
• FIFA Women's World Rankings
• AQB Sports Ratings
• Aggregated Football World Ranking-List
• Elo rating system
• Unofficial World Champions (soccer)

• World Football Elo ratings
• How the rankings are calculated

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