FIFA has released its first rankings since the Women’s World Cup — and Australia isn’t happy.
The Matildas took Australia by storm with record TV ratings, enormous crowds and making the World Cup semi-finals for the first time.
But in FIFA’s first ranking moves since the World Cup, the Matildas moved from 10th to 11th, the only team from the top 10 before the tournament to drop out, with Japan moving up from 11th to eighth after being knocked out in the quarterfinals.
This is despite the likes of Germany, Brazil and Canada not making it out of the group stages.
Each of those teams took a hit with Germany dropping from second to sixth, Brazil from eighth to ninth and Canada seventh to 10th. The US, who exited in the round of 16, fell from No. 1 to No. 3.
The rankings are topped for the first time by Sweden, who finished third at the World Cup, while world champions Spain moved from sixth to second.
The results are based on the Elo ranking system, which counts every game the team has ever played but are weighted to emphasise recent results.
But while the importance of a match is one of the elements used in the rankings, there is no difference between group matches or the knockout matches in a World Cup.
There is also different factors including the expected and actual result of the match, the difference in rating points between teams and the opposition’s rating before the match.
It means that while the Matildas finished fourth at the World Cup, to the algorithm, they won three matches, drew a match (against France), and lost three matches.
They also lost to Nigeria, who were ranked 40th before the World Cup.
And as the Matildas played all their matches in Australia, their rating was also impacted by a “home advantage” correction, which is based on the historical record of home teams winning two-thirds of the points available to them.
Incredibly, although England retained fourth place on the rankings after winning five matches, a draw (a shootout win over Nigeria) and a loss the World Cup final to Spain, the Lionesses lost 10.62 rankings points.
However, Aussie fans weren’t too happy about the Matildas falling outside the top 10.
Journalist Mark Gottlieb said: “@TheMatildas have DROPPED to Number 11 in the latest @FIFAcom women’s world rankings despite finishing 4th at the #fifawwc.”
When QRL content producer Jacob Grams explained that it may have had to do with losing its last two 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 everyone was stunned by the result, with Lachy France, who runs the website College Matildas saying last 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)