Thursday, July 13, 2006

We're #54!

The latest rankings for FIFA, the governing body for soccer, are out. They show Canada's national team (I didn't know we still had one) has rocketed up 29 spots to 54th. Even though we didn't qualify for the World Cup -- in fact, we haven't played a FIFA sanctioned game in over three months.

Why the huge improvement? Because now FIFA only takes into account the average performance of national teams over the last four years, not eight; as well as the strength of the various conferences. That also explains Team USA which took a nosedive, dropping from 5th to 16th. It has long dominated CONCACAF, the region that covers North America and the Caribbean, but it's considered weak compared to UEFA (Europe) or CAF (Africa).

Hey, there's always the World Cup in 2010 ... which will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa. By which time, we may very well be #1!

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