August: Canada ranked 10th in CONCACAF

Canada gained a handful of points, but remained 10th amongst CONCACAF nations on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking published on 24 August 2011. The Canadian team had lost points in recent months after the devaluation of points gained at previous CONCACAF Gold Cup competitions. Canada, ranked 102nd overall, hopes to regain those points in the coming months during CONCACAF Stage 2 of the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers™.



The FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking looks at each country’s international results from the last four years. The ranking takes into account the result, the importance of the match, the strength of the opponent, the regional strength, the time period, and the number of matches per year. Matches played more than a year ago are valued 50% of matches played in the last year; matches played more than two years ago are valued at 30% while matches played more than three years ago are valued at 20%.



There was no change to the top-10 ranking within CONCACAF, with Mexico and USA still ranked first and second. The top six teams from the ranking back in March 2011 (including Honduras, Jamaica, Costa Rica and Cuba) have by-passed CONCACAF Stage 2 of the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers. Canada is amongst the group that begins play this 2 September 2011.



As for the overall world ranking, Netherlands slipped into first place for the first time, thus becoming the seventh nation to ever hold the overall lead on points. Netherlands moved ahead of Spain, the FIFA World Cup™ champion from last July. Also in the world’s top 10 are Germany, England, Uruguay, Brazil, Italy, Portugal, Argentina and Croatia.



FIFA | CONCACAF | TEAM | POINTS

20 | 1 | Mexico | 864

28 | 2 | USA | 791

43 | 3 | Jamaica | 623

50 | 4 | Honduras | 589

60 | 5 | Costa Rica | 530

62 | 6 | Panama | 524

75 | 7 | El Salvador | 431

91 | 8 | Trinidad and Tobago | 355

99 | 9 | Cuba | 327

102 | 10 | Canada | 319