‘FIFA are a joke’: Australia rages after Matildas drop out of top 10

The Matildas took Australia by storm with file TV scores, huge crowds and making the World Cup semi-finals for the primary time.

But in FIFA’s first rating strikes because the World Cup, the Matildas moved from tenth to eleventh, the one crew from the highest 10 earlier than the event to drop out, with Japan transferring up from eleventh to eighth after being knocked out within the quarterfinals.

This is regardless of the likes of Germany, Brazil and Canada not making it out of the group phases.

Each of these groups took a success with Germany dropping from second to sixth, Brazil from eighth to ninth and Canada seventh to tenth. The US, who exited within the spherical of 16, fell from No. 1 to No. 3.

The rankings are topped for the primary time by Sweden, who completed third on the World Cup, whereas world champions Spain moved from sixth to second.

The outcomes are primarily based on the Elo rating system, which counts each sport the crew has ever performed however are weighted to emphasize latest outcomes.

But whereas the significance of a match is without doubt one of the components used within the rankings, there isn’t any distinction between group matches or the knockout matches in a World Cup.

There can be various factors together with the anticipated and precise results of the match, the distinction in ranking factors between groups and the opposition’s ranking earlier than the match.

It signifies that whereas the Matildas completed fourth on the World Cup, to the algorithm, they received three matches, drew a match (towards France), and misplaced three matches.

They additionally misplaced to Nigeria, who have been ranked fortieth earlier than the World Cup.

And because the Matildas performed all their matches in Australia, their ranking was additionally impacted by a “home advantage” correction, which is predicated on the historic file of dwelling groups profitable two-thirds of the factors obtainable to them.

Incredibly, though England retained fourth place on the rankings after profitable 5 matches, a draw (a shootout win over Nigeria) and a loss the World Cup ultimate to Spain, the Lionesses misplaced 10.62 rankings factors.

However, Aussie followers weren’t too blissful in regards to the Matildas falling exterior the highest 10.

Journalist Mark Gottlieb mentioned: “@TheMatildas have DROPPED to Number 11 in the latest @FIFAcom women’s world rankings despite finishing 4th at the #fifawwc.”

When QRL content material producer Jacob Grams defined that it might have needed to do with shedding its final two video games, Gottlieb replied: “That’s an insane way to do rankings.”

Grams replied: “It’s insane to do rankings based on results of matches?”

Gottlieb responded: “You think it makes sense for England to LOSE points for losing a World Cup final as opposed to gain points for, you know, making a World Cup final!

“Australia lost almost as many points as the USA. That’s nuts.”

Optus Sport presenter Michelle Escobar tweeted: “Matildas make it to a historic semi-finals berth and the FIFA rankings sees them bump down from 10th to 11th. WHAT?!”

But not everybody was surprised by the end result, with Lachy France, who runs the web site College Matildas saying final week: “The Matildas finished the Women’s World Cup with a draw and two losses at home and we lost to a team ranked in the 30s in the group stage our ranking is not going up.

“This is not like tennis where you get points for where you finish in a tournament.

“If you want to be the Jack Kramer of woso, doing vibes-based rankings like it’s 1950s tennis, have at it but don’t tell us what the official FIFA rankings are going to be.”

FIFA RANKINGS AFTER WOMEN’S WORLD CUP

1. Sweden (up-2)

2. Spain (up-4)

3. USA (down-2)

4. England

5. France

6. Germany (down-4)

7. Netherlands (up-2)

8. Japan (up-3)

9. Brazil (down-1)

10. Canada (down-3)

11. AUSTRALIA (down-1)

Originally printed as ‘FIFA are a joke’: Australia rages after Matildas drop out of prime 10