February 2012: FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings

Canada held onto the eighth spot in CONCACAF on the most recent FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking published on 15 February 2012. While Canada did not play in the past month, it did gain 14 points and three spots on account of the sliding calendar used to tabulate points from the last four years. Canada was ranked 71st on the overall global ranking.

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%.

African nations made the biggest jump on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking on the heels of the biennial African Cup of Nations. The results of 51 international matches were taken into account in compiling the most recent edition of the ranking, of which 32 took place as part of the Africa Cup of Nations and 19 were friendly matches.

In CONCACAF, El Salvador made the biggest jump amongst CONCACAF top-10 teams, climbing 70 points to jump into fifth place in the region. While Mexico, USA and Panama hold the top three positions, Jamaica, El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica round out the top-7 ahead of Canada. Haiti also made a notable jump in the most recent ranking, climbing 36 points to reach level with Canada at 469 points.

Canada’s first international match of the 2012 season will be 29 February in Limassol, Cyprus. Canada will be facing Armenia in what is the first international date of the FIFA calendar year.

CONCACAF TOP-10
21 1 Mexico 882
31 2 USA 750
49 3 Panama 594
50 4 Jamaica 589
54 5 El Salvador 576
59 6 Honduras 549
63 7 Costa Rica 539
71 8 Canada 469
71 9 Haiti 469
84 10 Guatemala 422