How does this happen?

[Stoney]

WTF? - How does this happen - England up to 4th in the FIFA Ranking - It is all a bit of a Joke to me - is any one from Barclays involed???

 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18703497

[pukka]

How were england seeded above portugal for the Euros? Thought it was done on past performance? Last time england bettered Portugals performance in a major comp was 1996

[palmer1]

we dont lose that many qualification games if any and we generally only get knocked out of tournaments on pens which i dont think goes against teams

 

portugal may go further but then lose in normal time which then goes against them

 

its the only reason i can think we are always ranked so high

[rudemedic]

England, like Spain, were undefeated in the tournament, the only two teams that applies to.

Portugal struggled to qualify, they came second in their group to the Danes, who were strangely seeded below them I think.

FIFA rankings make some sense at times; they struggle to grade hosts of tournaments though as they don't play competitive games for prolonged periods. Hence why Brazil are probably artificially low at the moment.

I think FIFA rankings go in 4 year cycles, so our inability to qualify in 2008, no longer counts against us.

[jimsleftfoot]

We are hard to beat, the chances are that if they ever created a league, we would probably be about 4th or 5th in the world.

[jsslatic]

Indeed, two wins and two draws at a major championships is a decent enough reason to climb. We've lost two competitive matches in four years.

[singe]

Mind you Michel Platinin is starting to make Sepp Blatter look competent and forward thinking.

Firstly his views on GLT and 4 Asst Refs, ( who are useless but who are going to be assessed whether they are sucessful or not (should take anyone else about 2 seconds)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18719396

 

and his organisations broadcasting integrity is under question.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/uefa-under-fire-faking-crying-fan-footage-110329796.html