After reigning as one of the top ten teams in the FIFA ranking for four years, Chile has now been dropped from the leaderboard and the team has found itself in twelfth position.
The annual FIFA ranking is a formula that was approved by the international football council after a series of testing. According to the organisation, it involves several calculations such as adding and subtracting points when games are won or lost, which is a newer ranking method than the previous ranks which involved averaging game points over a time period.
Based on the new calculation the Chilean team achieved 1,570 points, however, it is now the fourth best South American team in the list, trailing behind Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. Of the most drastic changes within the tables France gaining top position, moving up six from the previous year, whilst Russia saw the highest change by gaining 21 positions in the tables. It wasn’t, however, just Chile who waved goodbye to their top ten positions; Argentina, Poland and Germany fared a similar fate and descended through the ranks.
The Chilean football team is not a stranger to making headlines, especially after the shock which saw them not qualify for this year’s recent World Cup in Russia. According to football fans, it was in fact the method in which the Chilean team acted, especially on social media, which resulted in the team being mocked by the rest of South America. Having displayed a phenomenal attack against Brazil four years earlier, the team’s newfound success and actions such as seeing the team’s manager graffiti “Respect, the Champions of America passed through here,” on a locker in Lima made their loss ever more satisfying for neighbouring countries.
Captained by Claudio Bravo, and under the watchful eye of head coach Reinaldo Rueda, the Chilean team, often known as La Roja, can anticipate the next ranking session which will be published at the end of September. In the meantime, the Les Bleus of France remain world champions.
