International Football
DESPITE GOOD RUN, NIGERIA DROPS IN RANKING AS PREDICTED BY SPORTS VILLAGE SQUARE…FIFA EXPLAINS
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
As reported last week by Sports Village Square, the November 2017 ranking released this Thursday by FIFA has thrown up unpleasant surprise, sending down the ladder, the World Cup-bound Super Eagles.
From the previous 41st position, Nigeria has fallen down the ladder nine places to number 50 in the world. In essence, the good run of Nigeria in the past eight weeks has paradoxically brought the fortunes of the team down, rather than improving on it.
Flash back: Last week, Sports Village Square reported on the impending slump in FIFA ranking.
This month, the Super Eagles were held to 1-1 draw by Algeria in Constantine and the team later inflicted a 4-2 defeat on Argentina, two-time World Cup holders and the world’s number four ranked team.
Instead of rising, the Super Eagles slumped in a FIFA ranking that has defied logic. Cameroon, which as at last month ranked 42 behind Nigeria played a 2-2 draw with lowly ranked Zambia and yet places 45, five steps ahead of Nigeria.
While FIFA puts Nigeria at 50, the parallel organisers of monthly ranking, the World Football Elo Ratings put Nigeria at 41 with a point haul of 1,691 as against the paltry 671.07 that FIFA gave to Nigeria.
The highly subjective ranking formula will confound even the best mathematician. The formula is based on multiple factors that are summed up as P = M x I x T x C.
M states whether the match is won, lost or drawn. A win fetches three points while a drawn match has a point and a loss fetches zero.
This is multiplied by I which stands for the importance of the match. A World Cup qualifying match is given the value of 2.5 as against 1.0 for a friendly match. So, Nigeria’s win over Malawi for instance will be 3 multiplied 2.5 which in itself should fetch seven points.
In the ranking formula, the item T stands for the relative strength of the opposition. The pertinent question is whether the item “T’’ had no bearing when a Nigerian side ranked 41st pummelled the fourth ranked Argentina in Russia earlier this month.
According to FIFA, “the strength of the opponents is based on the formula: 200 – the ranking position of the opponents.
“As an exception to this formula, the team at the top of the ranking is always assigned the value 200 and the teams ranked 150th and below are assigned a minimum value of 50. The ranking position is taken from the opponents’ ranking in the most recently published FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking”.
So, the points obtained from the match are multiplied by the importance of the match and then the strength of the opposition and the continent involved.
Most football analysts have often kicked against the FIFA ranking claiming that it is disproportional and does not often represent the relative strength of teams.
Owing to this, alternative rankings by football statisticians, such as that of World Football Elo Ratings and the rec.sport.soccer Statistics Foundation rankings have emerged.
According to an Associated Press (AP) report in June 2006 when the US team was ranked fourth in the world in April 2006, even their players were shocked and felt flattered! That was even after they were beaten 4-1 by Germany.
The ranking started in December 1992 and had been subject of intense debate. On at least two instances, FIFA has had to adjust the yardsticks.
According to FIFA’s explanations, the basic logic of the “calculation is simple: any team that does well in world football wins points which enable it to climb the world ranking.
FIFA OFFERS EXPLANATIONS
In exchange of communication involving eleven different e-mails in 2013, FIFA explained exclusively to Sports Village Square’s editor -in-chief, why Nigeria dropped in ranking despite a win in competitive match and draw and lone goal loss in friendly encounters.
Giovanni Marti of the FIFA Media Department was the first to respond, providing two documents and giving a web link for further clarification.
He asserted that FIFA was not calculating the ‘results and rankings on a hypothetical basis’.
The documents provided are Fact Sheets and frequently asked questions on the ranking. Giovanni explained that the ranking is not based solely on current results, but older results have impact on recent scores.
“It’s simply an accumulated depreciation over the past years…meaning that as some matches grew older, they are devalued according to a calculating scheme.
He backed up the claims with the score sheet of Nigeria’s matches since 2010.
After his response, other FIFA staff members – Nicolas Maingot and Matthias Kunz also joined in providing documents to back up the ranking.
The first set of match log sent was questionable. Nigeria’s matches carried wrong dates and were three years older than schedule.
For instance, Nigeria’s 1-0 defeat of Benin played on January 16, 2010 was captured as having been played on January 15, 2006. All matches of 2010 were captured as 2006 and a day earlier than actual.
Those of 2011 were similarly captured as those of 2007 and so on. Considering that age is an important factor on current ranking, it is envisaged that it could have had negative impact on Nigeria’s total point haul.
Match results are depreciated according to age. A team’s total number of points over a four-year period is determined by adding the average number of points gained from matches during the past 12 months; and the average number of points gained from matches older than 12 months depreciates yearly.
Matches played four years ago are discounted to have 20% value. Those older than four years have zero value as they are deleted. Match average from Year 3 have a 30% value while those of last year have 50% value and the ones of the current year carry full value of 100%.
It was explained that four years, covering one World Cup cycle, are taken into account in calculating the ranking.
When the issue of wrong dates were brought up, Giovanni Monday sent another e-mail with another log for Nigeria explaining that his colleagues from the Ranking unit gave him another version as in the earlier one, the dates slipped in the excel-list when programming.
“But now my colleagues remark that everything has been controlled and everything is correct. There are no effects on the current points that Nigeria have”.
In other words, only matches played since January 2010 are taken into account in the November 2013 ranking as some earlier matches which reflected in October and September 2013 have waned off.
For instance, in the September 2013 ranking, the earliest match that featured was the 1-0 defeat of Mozambique in a 2010 World Cup qualifying series played on October 11, 2009.
Employing the 12-month cycle, the match was wiped off in the October 2013 ranking which began with the 3-2 away win against Kenya on November 14, 2009.
In the ranking released in October 2013, a Nigeria’s 3-2 away win in Kenya had been wiped off as it could not make the four-year calendar cycle. The calculation thus began with Nigeria’s 3-1 loss to Egypt in one of the opening matches of the Angola 2010 Africa Cup of Nations.
In that match, Nigeria had zero point. So, while the September rankings took into consideration 17 games played in 2010 for instance, the matches had reduced to 16 in the November ranking.
The calculation for November 2013 thus run: In a cycle spanning from the 3-1 loss to Egypt in January 10, 2010, to the 1-0 loss to Guinea in Conakry on October 10, 2010, Nigeria played 16 matches and obtaining 5,567.68 points the average of which comes to 348 points.
But when the points are discounted at 20% according to the four year cycle the matches have passed through, they come to a discounted value of 69.6 points.
If the explanations offered by FIFA four years ago were to be taken now, it means matches that Nigeria had played as at November 2014 had been wiped off.
A new cycle began with the 0-1 loss of Nigeria’s home based Eagles to the 2015 Africa Nations Cup –bound Cote d’Ivoire. The match was played in Abu Dhabi on January 15, 2015.
It was followed up two days later with a Nigerian 2-0 defeat of Yemen. The third match that must have been taken into account was the 0-1 loss to Uganda in Uyo in a match organized to mark Vincent Enyeama’s 100th cap.
With the calculations that FIFA is employing, it might take another decade before Nigeria breaks into the top 20 in the monthly ranking.
International Football
Portugal call up same player named in England Under-18 squad
Wolverhampton Wanderers forward Mateus Mane has become hot property after Portugal named the 17-year-old in their Under-18 squad on Friday, one day after England included him in their squad.
Mane was called up for a second successive England youth camp by coach Liam Bramley before the team travel to Marbella for a four-team tournament this month.
Mane is eligible for both teams having played for the Portugal Under-17 side last season. As the Under-18 team is a non-UEFA age group, both nations are entitled to call the player up.
He made his England international debut last month against the Portugal Under-18 side who have named Mane in their squad for a four-nation tournament this month.
With both tournaments running concurrently, Mane can only play for one team and Wolves and England confirmed he would feature in Bramley’s side.
Reuters has contacted Portugal’s football association for clarification.
While players with multiple nationalities have played for more than one country if they are eligible, they are not allowed to switch allegiances at senior level – unless they have played only in friendly matches for the first country.
-Reuters
International Football
Soon Cisse ceases to be Senegal’s Coach
After 107 matches spanning nine years, Aliou Cisse will not have his contract renewed as Senegal coach, officials confirmed on Wednesday. Of the 107 matches, Cisse’s team won 70, drew 24 and lost 13.
But the impressive scorecard is not enough to impress his employers.
Thus, the end beckons for Cisse’s successful nine-year spell in charge of the side that included a first Africa Cup of Nations title and two World Cup qualifications.
He had been under increasing pressure after Senegal’s surprise last 16 exit at the 2023 Cup of Nations when they lost on penalties to hosts Cote d’Ivoire.
Senegal are unbeaten in six matches since then, but home draws with the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burkina Faso, and criticism from certain quarters over their style of play, made up the mind of the country’s sports ministry, who fund the salary of the national team coach, that a change was needed.
“The FSF would like to thank Aliou Cisse for his good collaboration and his brilliant results at the head of the various national selections that he has managed since his arrival in 2011 and wish him every success for the future,” the Senegalese Football Federation (FSF) said in a statement.
FSF added Cisse’s exit stemmed from a failure to fulfil the targets in his last contract, which expired at the end of August, which included victory at the 2023 Cup of Nations and reaching the quarter-finals of the 2022 World Cup.
They also said the “regression of our national team in the FIFA rankings and the risk of disaffection between our national team and the Senegalese (public)” had played a role.
The FSF will appoint an interim technical team to lead the side in Cup of Nations qualifiers against Malawi at home on Oct. 11 and away four days later.
Cisse, 48, was captain of Senegal when they reached the quarter-finals of the 2002 World Cup with what is heralded as a golden generation of players.
He briefly had a spell as caretaker coach of the national team in 2012, but took over full time three years later.
He led Senegal to 2018 and 2022 World Cup qualification, making the last 16 in the latter before losing to England. They were beaten in the final of the 2019 Cup of Nations by Algeria.
The side made up for that disappointment when they beat Egypt in the final two years later to be crowned African champions for the first time.
International Football
Why FIFA banned Samuel Eto’o
Always in the news for bad reasons, Samuel Eto’o has again made global headlines. The FIFA Disciplinary Committee has banned the former striker and the current president of the Cameroon Football Federation.
He is banned from attending Cameroon’s matches for the next six months for violating conduct rules during the recent U-20 Women’s World Cup, where his national team faced Brazil in the round of 16.
According to FIFA’s Disciplinary Committee, Eto’o was found to have breached articles 13 (“Offensive behaviour and violations of fair play principles”) and 14 (“Misconduct of players and officials”) of FIFA’s Disciplinary Code.
The sanction stems specifically from the match between Brazil and Cameroon, held on September 11 in Bogotá, Colombia. As a result, Eto’o will be prohibited from attending any matches involving Cameroon’s national teams, both male and female, across all age groups.
“Mr Eto’o has been notified today, the date on which the sanction comes into force,” stated the FIFA press release.
This is not the first time Eto’o has faced controversy. He previously drew attention for his behavior towards players and national team coach Marc Brys, whom he allegedly threatened in front of cameras if his directives were not followed.
During the Qatar World Cup, the former Real Madrid, Mallorca, and Barcelona player made headlines again after assaulting a fan who filmed him outside a stadium after a match.
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