Elo Rating System for football

The World Football Elo Ratings is a ranking system for men's national association football teams that is published by the website eloratings.net. It is based on the Elo rating system but includes modifications to take various football-specific variables into account, like the margin of victory, importance of a match, and home field advantage. Ratings tend to converge on a team's true strength relative to its competitors after about 30 matches. Ratings for teams with fewer than 30 matches are considered provisional.

Other implementations of the Elo rating system are possible. A 2009 comparative study of eight methods found that the implementation of the Elo rating system described below had the highest predictive capability for football matches, while the men's FIFA ranking method in place until July 2018 performed poorly.

The FIFA World Rankings is the official national teams rating system used by the international governing body of football. The FIFA Women's World Rankings system has used a modified version of the Elo formula since 2003. Following the 2018 World Cup, the FIFA ranking will switch to an Elo-based ranking as well, starting from the current FIFA rating points.

The major difference between the World Football Elo Rating and the future men's FIFA rating system is that the latter will not consider goal differential and will count a penalty shoot-out as a win/loss rather than a draw; thus, a 7:0 blowout will be considered equal to a 7:6 penalty shoot-out win (neither method distinguishes a win in extra time from a win in regular time). The FIFA method will further be less sensitive to the difference in ratings and more sensitive to match status. Finally, World Football Elo Ratings considers all official international matches for which results are available, including those involving "unaffiliated" teams that are not a member of FIFA.

Top 80 ratings as of 3 July 2018
Elo Rank	1 Year Change	Team	Elo Rating	FIFA Rank*
1		Brazil	2156	2
2	4	France	2029	7
3	8	Belgium	2010	3
	1	Spain	2010	10
5	13	Uruguay	1986	14
6	4	Germany	1964	1
7	9	Croatia	1950	20
8	2	England	1944	12
9	4	Portugal	1940	4
10	3	Colombia	1939	16
11	6	Netherlands	1908	17
12	7	Sweden	1906	24
13	10	Argentina	1896	5
	20	Denmark	1896	12
15	7	Italy	1891	19
16	1	Peru	1890	11
17	3	Switzerland	1879	6
18	9	Chile	1869	9
19	7	Mexico	1829	15
20	3	Iran	1816	37
21	8	Poland	1783	8
22	3	Wales	1777	18
23	9	Serbia	1772	34
24	2	United States	1764	25
25	11	Senegal	1763	27
26	8	South Korea	1757	57
27		Slovakia	1752	28
28	2	Ukraine	1750	35
29	9	Ecuador	1747	60
30		Bosnia & Herzegovina	1745	40
31	8	Austria	1742	26
32	8	Venezuela	1739	33
33	9	Republic of Ireland	1729	31
34	3	Paraguay	1728	32
	12	Turkey	1728	38
36	8	Romania	1727	30
37	8	Costa Rica	1726	23
38	22	Morocco	1720	41
39	4	Australia	1713	36
	1	Czech Republic	1713	46
41	2	Russia	1710	70
42	1	Scotland	1709	42
43	23	Iceland	1708	22
44	9	Nigeria	1702	48
45	17	Japan	1699	61
46	1	Northern Ireland	1676	29
47	19	Tunisia	1662	21
48	7	Bolivia	1661	59
49	3	Greece	1646	44
50	3	Cameroon	1645	49
	17	Ghana	1645	47
52	17	Norway	1640	53
53	2	Slovenia	1626	56
54	1	Bulgaria	1615	49
55	13	Syria	1606	73
56	20	Finland	1605	63
57	8	Ivory Coast	1602	68
58	6	Uzbekistan	1599	95
59	1	Burkina Faso	1597	52
	3	Montenegro	1597	43
61	11	Panama	1596	55
62	1	Honduras	1590	62
63	2	DR Congo	1589	38
64	7	Saudi Arabia	1588	67
65	11	Hungary	1576	51
66	18	Egypt	1575	45
67	18	Jamaica	1574	54
68	4	South Africa	1565	74
69	10	Albania	1560	58
70	8	Iraq	1550	89
71	24	Oman	1539	84
72	9	Canada	1534	79
	1	China	1534	75
74	2	United Arab Emirates	1532	77
75	5	Israel	1527	93
76	11	Belarus	1522	78
77	2	Mali	1519	64
78	15	North Macedonia	1518	71
79	1	Guatemala	1511	146
80	25	Algeria	1508	66
*FIFA rankings per 7 June 2018
Complete rankings at eloratings.net

AFC	CAF	CONCACAF	CONIFA
CONMEBOL	OFC	UEFA

History and overview

The Elo system, developed by Hungarian-American mathematician Árpád Élő, is used by FIDE, the international chess federation, to rate chess players, and by the European Go Federation, to rate Go players. In 1997, Bob Runyan adapted the Elo rating system to international football and posted the results on the Internet. He was also the first maintainer of the World Football Elo Ratings web site, currently maintained by Kirill Bulygin.

The Elo system was adapted for football by adding a weighting for the kind of match, an adjustment for the home team advantage, and an adjustment for goal difference in the match result.

The factors taken into consideration when calculating a team's new rating are:

• The team's old rating
• The considered weight of the tournament
• The goal difference of the match
• The result of the match
• The expected result of the match

These ratings take into account all international "A" matches for which results could be found. Ratings tend to converge on a team's true strength relative to its competitors after about 30 matches. Ratings for teams with fewer than 30 matches should be considered provisional.

Calculation principles

The ratings are based on the following formulae:

$R_{n}=R_{o}+KG(W-W_{e})$

or

$P=KG(W-W_{e})$

Where;

$R_{n}$	= The new team rating
$R_{o}$	= The old team rating
$K$	= Weight index regarding the tournament of the match
$G$	= A number from the index of goal differences
$W$	= The result of the match
$W_{e}$	= The expected result
$P$	= Points Change

"Points Change" is rounded to the nearest integer before updating the team rating.

Status of match

The status of the match is incorporated by the use of a weight constant. The constant reflects the importance of a match, which, in turn, is determined entirely by which tournament the match is in; the weight constant for each major tournament is:

Tournament or Match type	Index (K)
World Cup, Olympic Games (1908-1980)	60
Continental championship and intercontinental tournaments	50
World Cup and Continental qualifiers and major tournaments	40
All other tournaments	30
Friendly matches	20

The FIFA adaptation of the Elo rating will feature 8 weights, with the knockout stages in the World Cup weighing 12x more than some friendly matches.

Number of goals

The number of goals is taken into account by use of a goal difference index.

If the game is a draw or is won by one goal

$G=1$

If the game is won by two goals

$G={\frac {3}{2}}$

If the game is won by three or more goals

• Where N is the goal difference

$G={\frac {11+N}{8}}$

Table of examples:

Goal Difference	Coefficient of K (G)
0	1
+1	1
+2	1.5
+3	1.75
+4	1.875
+5	2
+6	2.125

Result of match

W is the result of the game (1 for a win, 0.5 for a draw, and 0 for a loss). This also holds when a game is won or lost on extra time. If the match is decided on penalties, however, the result of the game is considered a draw (W = 0.5).

Expected result of match

W_e is the expected result (win expectancy with a draw counting as 0.5) from the following formula:

$W_{e}={\frac {1}{10^{-dr/400}+1}}$

where dr equals the difference in ratings (add 100 points for the home team). So dr of 0 gives 0.5, of 120 gives 0.666 to the higher-ranked team and 0.334 to the lower, and of 800 gives 0.99 to the higher-ranked team and 0.01 to the lower.
The FIFA adaptation of the Elo rating will not incorporate a home team advantage and will have a larger divisor in the formula (600 vs 400), making the points exchange less sensitive to the rating difference of two teams.

Examples for clarification

The same example of a three-team friendly tournament on neutral territory is used as on the FIFA World Rankings page. Beforehand team A had a rating of 600 points, team B 500 points, and teams C 480 points.
The first table shows the points allocations based on three possible outcomes of the match between the strongest team A, and the somewhat weaker team B:

	Team A	Team B	Team A	Team B	Team A	Team B
Score	3 : 1		1 : 3		2 : 2
$K$	20	20	20	20	20	20
$G$	1.5	1.5	1.5	1.5	1	1
$W$	1	0	0	1	0.5	0.5
$W_{e}$	0.679	0.321	0.679	0.321	0.679	0.321
Total (P)	+9.63	-9.63	-20.37	+20.37	-3.58	+3.58

When the difference in strength between the two teams is less, so also will be the difference in points allocation. The next table illustrates how the points would be divided following the same results as above, but with two roughly equally ranked teams, B and C, being involved:

	Team B	Team C	Team B	Team C	Team B	Team C
Score	3–1		1–3		2–2
$K$	20	20	20	20	20	20
$G$	1.5	1.5	1.5	1.5	1	1
$W$	1	0	0	1	0.5	0.5
$W_{e}$	0.529	0.471	0.529	0.471	0.529	0.471
Total (P)	+14.13	-14.13	-15.87	+15.87	-0.58	+0.58

Team B drops more points by losing to Team C, which has shown about the same strength, than by losing to Team A, which has been considerably better than Team B.

List of number one teams

The following is the list of nations who reached a first rank in ratings since 1872.

Start Date	Nation	# of days
30 Nov 1872	England	1,190
4 Mar 1876	Scotland	5,873
2 Apr 1892	England	3,760
20 Jul 1902	Argentina	2,148
6 Jun 1908	England	2,190
5 Jun 1914	Denmark	5
10 Jun 1914	Denmark England	361
6 Jun 1915	Denmark	490
8 Oct 1916	England	1,420
28 Aug 1920	Spain	1
29 Aug 1920	Uruguay	7
5 Sep 1920	Spain	13
18 Sep 1920	Uruguay	386
9 Oct 1921	Spain	959
25 May 1924	Uruguay	419
18 Jul 1925	Spain	273
17 Apr 1926	Scotland	186
20 Oct 1926	Argentina	4
24 Oct 1926	Uruguay	583
29 May 1928	Argentina	1
30 May 1928	Uruguay	3
2 Jun 1928	Argentina	1
3 Jun 1928	Uruguay	3
6 Jun 1928	Argentina	1
7 Jun 1928	Uruguay	374
16 Jun 1929	Argentina	1,806
27 May 1934	Austria	11
7 Jun 1934	Italy	1,277
5 Dec 1937	Argentina	182
5 Jun 1938	Italy	630
25 Feb 1940	Argentina	144
18 Jul 1940	Italy	136
1 Dec 1940	Argentina	56
26 Jan 1941	Italy	3
29 Jan 1941	Argentina	445
19 Apr 1942	Italy	36
25 May 1942	Argentina	307
28 Mar 1943	Argentina Italy	7
4 Apr 1943	Argentina	98
11 Jul 1943	Argentina Italy	545
6 Jan 1945	Argentina	36
11 Feb 1945	Italy	4
15 Feb 1945	Argentina	142
7 Jul 1945	Italy	127
11 Nov 1945	Argentina Italy	35
16 Dec 1945	Argentina	4
20 Dec 1945	Italy	52

Start Date	Nation	# of days
10 Feb 1946	Argentina	455
11 May 1947	Argentina Italy	182
9 Nov 1947	Argentina	335
9 Oct 1948	England	182
9 Apr 1949	Argentina	442
25 Jun 1950	England	4
29 Jun 1950	Argentina	814
20 Sep 1952	Hungary	218
26 Apr 1953	Argentina	21
17 May 1953	Hungary	1,417
3 Apr 1957	Argentina	3
6 Apr 1957	Hungary	67
12 Jun 1957	Argentina	95
15 Sep 1957	Hungary	8
23 Sep 1957	Argentina	13
6 Oct 1957	Hungary	249
12 Jun 1958	Hungary Brazil	3
15 Jun 1958	Brazil	634
10 Mar 1960	Hungary	3
13 Mar 1960	Argentina	47
29 Apr 1960	Brazil	27
26 May 1960	Argentina	3
29 May 1960	Brazil	1,026
21 Mar 1963	Soviet Union	836
4 Jul 1965	Brazil	322
22 May 1966	Soviet Union	13
4 Jun 1966	Brazil	41
15 Jul 1966	Soviet Union	10
25 Jul 1966	West Germany	5
30 Jul 1966	England	1,408
7 Jun 1970	Brazil	742
18 Jun 1972	Brazil West Germany	10
28 Jun 1972	West Germany	11
9 Jul 1972	Brazil	129
15 Nov 1972	West Germany	91
14 Feb 1973	Brazil	484
13 Jun 1974	West Germany	9
22 Jun 1974	Brazil	11
3 Jul 1974	West Germany	1,429
1 Jun 1978	Netherlands	6
7 Jun 1978	West Germany	3
10 Jun 1978	Netherlands	1
11 Jun 1978	West Germany	3
14 Jun 1978	Brazil	504
31 Oct 1979	West Germany	434
7 Jan 1981	Brazil	3
10 Jan 1981	West Germany	71
22 Mar 1981	Brazil	10

Start Date	Nation	# of days
1 Apr 1981	West Germany	44
15 May 1981	Brazil	152
14 Oct 1981	West Germany	243
14 Jun 1982	Brazil	486
13 Oct 1983	Soviet Union	335
12 Sep 1984	France	232
2 May 1985	West Germany	41
12 Jun 1985	France	91
11 Sep 1985	Soviet Union	133
22 Jan 1986	France	154
25 Jun 1986	Brazil	3
28 Jun 1986	France	1
29 Jun 1986	Argentina	346
10 Jun 1987	Brazil	23
3 Jul 1987	England	57
29 Aug 1987	Soviet Union	74
11 Nov 1987	England	141
31 Mar 1988	England Soviet Union	2
2 Apr 1988	England	71
12 Jun 1988	Soviet Union	5
17 Jun 1988	West Germany	1
18 Jun 1988	Soviet Union	7
25 Jun 1988	Netherlands	715
10 Jun 1990	Netherlands West Germany	2
12 Jun 1990	West Germany	7
19 Jun 1990	Brazil	5
24 Jun 1990	West Germany	725
18 Jun 1992	Netherlands	3
21 Jun 1992	Germany	5
26 Jun 1992	Netherlands	75
9 Sep 1992	Germany	35
14 Oct 1992	Brazil	2
16 Oct 1992	Argentina	246
19 Jun 1993	Germany	370
24 Jun 1994	Brazil	3
27 Jun 1994	Germany	12
9 Jul 1994	Brazil	708
16 Jun 1996	Germany	3
19 Jun 1996	Germany Brazil	4
23 Jun 1996	Germany	352
10 Jun 1997	Brazil	380
25 Jun 1998	Germany	2
27 Jun 1998	Brazil	2
29 Jun 1998	Germany	4
3 Jul 1998	Brazil	9
12 Jul 1998	France	331
8 Jun 1999	Brazil	374
16 Jun 2000	France	5

Start Date	Nation	# of days
21 Jun 2000	Brazil	4
25 Jun 2000	France	711
6 Jun 2002	Argentina	1
7 Jun 2002	Italy	1
8 Jun 2002	France	3
11 Jun 2002	Netherlands	10
21 Jun 2002	Brazil	236
12 Feb 2003	Netherlands	210
10 Sep 2003	France	291
27 Jun 2004	Czech Republic	4
1 Jul 2004	France	65
4 Sep 2004	Argentina	273
4 Jun 2005	Czech Republic	4
8 Jun 2005	Argentina	21
29 Jun 2005	Brazil	102
9 Oct 2005	Netherlands	3
12 Oct 2005	Brazil	265
4 Jul 2006	Italy	43
16 Aug 2006	France	52
7 Oct 2006	Brazil	122
6 Feb 2007	France	1
7 Feb 2007	Brazil	119
6 Jun 2007	Brazil France	21
27 Jun 2007	France	14
11 Jul 2007	Argentina	4
15 Jul 2007	Brazil	334
13 Jun 2008	Netherlands	8
21 Jun 2008	Spain	368
24 Jun 2009	Brazil	339
29 May 2010	Brazil Spain	4
2 Jun 2010	Brazil	1
3 Jun 2010	Spain	4
7 Jun 2010	Spain Brazil	1
8 Jun 2010	Spain	7
15 Jun 2010	Spain Brazil	1
16 Jun 2010	Brazil	16
2 Jul 2010	Netherlands	5
7 Jul 2010	Spain	1,089
30 Jun 2013	Brazil	45
14 Aug 2013	Spain	59
12 Oct 2013	Brazil	260
29 Jun 2014	Netherlands	5
4 Jul 2014	Germany	695
29 May 2016	Argentina	165
10 Nov 2016	Brazil	329
5 Oct 2017	Germany	36
10 Nov 2017	Brazil	2,549

All-time highest ratings

The following is a list of national football teams ranked by their highest Elo score ever reached. The team in each confederation that has achieved the highest rank is shown in color.

Rank	Nation	High (rank)	High date	High rank (first,last year)	Low (rank)	Low date
1	Hungary	2230 (1)	1954-06-30	1 (1952,1960)	1528 (74)	2003-11-19
2	Germany	2223 (1)	2014-07-13	1 (1966,2017)	1639 (19)	1920-09-26
3	England	2216 (1)	1912-09-09	1 (1872,1988)	1790 (13)	1928-03-31
4	Brazil	2194 (1)	1962-06-17	1 (1958,2018)	1813 (13)	1922-09-24
5	Spain	2165 (1)	2013-06-23	1 (1920,2013)	1800 (19)	1969-06-25
6	Argentina	2159 (1)	1957-04-03	1 (1929,2016)	1751 (26)	1990-06-08
7	Netherlands	2154 (2)	2014-07-12	1 (1978,2014)	1550 (49)	1954-10-24
8	France	2137 (1)	2001-05-30	1 (1984,2007)	1507 (40)	1930-05-18
9	Italy	2132 (1)	1939-06-11	1 (1952,2006)	1605 (21)	1920-08-29
10	Uruguay	2108 (1)	1928-06-13	1 (1920,1929)	1635 (44)	1979-09-05
11	Scotland	2104 (1)	1888-03-10	1 (1876,1926)	1600 (63)	2005-03-26
12	Soviet Union	1449 (1)	1966-07-23	1 (1963,1988)	1449 (22)	1913-09-14
13	Poland	2083 (2)	1974-09-01	2 (1974,1975)	1525 (55)	1956-08-26
14	Denmark	2077 (1)	1916-06-25	1 (1914,1916)	1536 (59)	1967-05-24
15	Austria	2068 (1)	1934-05-31	1 (1934)	1550 (73)	2011-09-02
16	Chile	2041 (3)	2016-06-26	2 (2016)	1384 (24)	1916-07-06
17	Czech Republic	2038 (1)	2004-06-27	1 (2004,2005)	1670 (46)	2017-09-04
18	Colombia	2035 (5)	2014-06-28	3 (2016)	1304 (94)	1957-03-13
19	Portugal	2022 (3)	1966-07-28	2 (2006)	1619 (41)	1962-11-07
20	Sweden	2012 (3)	1949-06-02	2 (1950)	1577 (28)	1922-05-28
21	Belgium	2010 (3)	2018-07-02	3 (2018)	1497 (44)	1936-03-29
22	Yugoslavia	1515 (3)	1962-06-10	2 (1962)	1515 (39)	1927-04-10
23	Croatia	2005 (5)	1998-07-11	5 (1998)	1781 (21)	2015-09-06
24	East Germany	1993 (5)	1974-06-22	4 (1974,1977)	1419 (74)	1954-10-24
25	Mexico	1986 (6)	2016-06-09	4 (2016)	1495 (41)	1930-07-19
26	Paraguay	1954 (5)	1954-02-21	5 (1954)	1617 (42)	1962-08-12
27	Romania	1946 (6)	1990-06-09	5 (1990)	1503 (43)	1935-09-01
28	Greece	1931 (7)	2004-08-18	7 (2004)	1277 (65)	1936-06-19
29	Switzerland	1930 (9)	2018-06-22	9 (1930)	1490 (23)	1920-02-29
30	Norway	1929 (8)	2000-06-13	8 (2000)	1364 (26)	1916-07-02
31	Rep. of Ireland	1920 (8)	1994-06-18	8 (1991,2002)	1538 (62)	1971-10-10
32	Peru	1916 (10)	2018-06-13	10 (2018)	1486 (45)	1935-01-20
33	Ecuador	1915 (12)	2015-11-17	12 (2013)	1184 (92)	1949-04-25
34	Wales	1905 (13)	1981-05-20	3 (1876,1902)	1403 (3)	1900-02-03
35	Turkey	1899 (12)	2003-06-19	10 (2002,2003)	1381 (55)	1937-08-01

Rank	Nation	High (rank)	High date	High rank (first,last year)	Low (rank)	Low date
36	Bulgaria	1896 (9)	1969-06-15	7 (1969)	1320 (56)	1931-05-10
	Japan	1896 (10)	2001-08-15	8 (2001)	1214 (59)	1927-08-27
38	United States	1891 (11)	2005-09-03	9 (2009)	1417 (88)	1975-08-24
	Egypt	1891 (12)	1965-03-25	10 (1965)	1526 (51)	1953-01-16
40	Australia	1880 (12)	1997-12-14	11 (2001)	1472 (76)	1965-11-29
41	Algeria	1875 (12)	1963-01-04	10 (1959,1960)	1392 (108)	2007-09-09
42	Ghana	1872 (10)	1966-10-30	10 (1966,1967)	1427 (100)	2004-06-14
43	Costa Rica	1868 (15)	2014-11-13	9 (1932,1934)	1495 (72)	1983-03-22
	Ivory Coast	1868 (15)	2013-01-26	15 (2013)	1497 (73)	1983-01-09
45	Cameroon	1852 (14)	2003-06-26	14 (2003)	1453 (81)	1964-01-31
46	Northern Ireland	1850 (17)	1986-04-23	14 (1986)	1397 (108)	2013-10-11
47	Ukraine	1846 (17)	2013-11-15	15 (2010)	1536 (69)	1995-03-29
48	North Korea	1844 (15)	1966-07-19	10 (1969,1970)	1415 (104)	2004-03-31
	South Korea	1844 (17)	2002-06-22	15 (1948,1953)	1446 (79)	1967-08-07
50	Iceland	1841 (19)	2017-10-09	18 (2017)	1256 (123)	1973-08-29
51	Iran	1836 (18)	2005-04-12	18 (2005)	1461 (75)	1959-12-11
52	Nigeria	1828 (18)	2004-06-05	16 (2004)	1500 (72)	1964-12-27
53	Morocco	1823 (21)	1976-06-11	18 (1999)	1512 (86)	2013-03-24
54	South Africa	1817 (10)	1906-07-09	8 (1907,1908)	1452 (95)	2006-09-02
55	Senegal	1812 (21)	2002-06-16	21 (2002,2018)	1392 (105)	1994-10-28
56	Bosnia Herzegovina	1807 (21)	2013-06-07	20 (2013)	1499 (75)	2002-09-07
57	Venezuela	1806 (19)	2011-07-20	19 (2011)	1212 (76)	1938-08-19
58	Guinea	1799 (24)	1977-06-05	20 (1977)	1306 (128)	1996-06-01
59	Bolivia	1793 (21)	1997-06-25	21 (1997)	1244 (61)	1930-07-20
60	Honduras	1790 (25)	2001-09-05	19 (2001	1332 (108)	1965-03-17
61	DR Congo	1789 (19)	1969-12-14	19 (1969)	1392 (111)	2010-09-05
62	Slovakia	1776 (28)	2017-09-01	17 (1939,1941)	1578 (66)	2011-10-07
63	Uzbekistan	1772 (27)	1994-10-16	23 (1994)	1435 (91)	2001-02-12
64	Israel	1771 (25)	1976-04-11	23 (1976)	1426 (75)	1954-05-01
65	Tunisia	1761 (32)	2006-01-26	24 (1978)	1437 (83)	1987-09-23
66	Slovenia	1758 (28)	2001-11-14	27 (2001)	1516 (70)	1998-08-19
67	China	1755 (28)	2001-10-13	21 (1934)	1444 (90)	1992-08-29
	Panama	1755 (29)	2013-07-24	28 (2013)	1152 (141)	1971-04-22
69	Iraq	1753 (24)	1982-12-03	24 (1982)	1452 (97)	2016-10-06
70	Finland	1747 (29)	2002-03-27	14 (1912)	1245 (116)	1961-06-16

Average ratings

Time averaged Elo or Elo-like scores are routinely used to compare chess player strengths. The first table is a list of the national teams with the highest average Elo score over approximately the last half century, from 1 January 1970 to 1 January 2018. Before this time intercontinental play was fairly limited and many nations in Africa, North America, and Asia had played too few games yet to create a representative Elo score.

Highest average ratings since 1970

Rank	Country	Avg Elo
1	Brazil	2046.0
2	Germany	2018.8
3	Netherlands	1960.0
4	England	1957.6
5	Italy	1955.7
6	Spain	1950.4
7	Argentina	1940.4
8	France	1923.9
9	Russia	1877.7
10	Czechia	1862.7
11	Portugal	1859.8
12	Serbia	1845.2
13	Sweden	1830.6

Rank	Country	Avg Elo
14	Mexico	1817.4
15	Romania	1817.2
16	Uruguay	1807.5
17	Belgium	1807.0
18	Poland	1804.5
19	Denmark	1800.9
20	Scotland	1771.2
21	Chile	1762.2
22	Ireland	1760.1
23	Paraguay	1752.6
24	Bulgaria	1737.0
25	Switzerland	1733.8
26	Austria	1727.0

Rank	Country	Avg Elo
27	Colombia	1723.5
28	Hungary	1720.7
29	Australia	1712.9
30	Wales	1694.6
31	Greece	1693.7
32	South Korea	1690.0
33	Iran	1684.7
34	Turkey	1680.2
35	Peru	1676.8
36	Nigeria	1674.4
37	Egypt	1671.1
38	Norway	1669.2
39	Israel	1667.0

Rank	Country	Avg Elo
40	United States	1649.0
41	Cameroon	1647.7
42	Morocco	1643.4
43	Northern Ireland	1642.3
44	Ivory Coast	1638.5
45	Costa Rica	1636.1
46	Ghana	1626.0
47	Ecuador	1623.5
48	Japan	1614.3
49	Tunisia	1610.0
50	Iraq	1603.6
51	China	1600.9
52	Honduras	1584.6

Averages by decade

The table below shows the teams with the best average Elo score each decade since the 1920s (Jan 1 XXX0 - Dec 31 XXX9).

1920s
Uruguay	2011
Spain	1977
Argentina	1962
Scotland	1959
England	1904
Czechoslovakia	1892
Brazil	1890
Hungary	1880
Austria	1865
Denmark	1805
Netherlands	1797
Belgium	1768
Sweden	1758
Italy	1744
Paraguay	1735

1930s
Argentina	2040
Italy	2030
England	1964
Uruguay	1959
Scotland	1949
Austria	1944
Spain	1939
Brazil	1902
Czechoslovakia	1874
Hungary	1867
Costa Rica	1835
Germany	1819
Wales	1763
Paraguay	1742
United States	1735

1940s
Argentina	2083
Italy	2061
England	1976
Scotland	1945
Brazil	1928
Spain	1926
Germany	1891
Uruguay	1885
Hungary	1881
Austria	1871
Wales	1844
Czechoslovakia	1834
Mexico	1803
Sweden	1797
Switzerland	1759

1950s
Hungary	2060
Argentina	2060
Brazil	2027
England	1982
West Germany	1924
Yugoslavia	1903
Uruguay	1881
Austria	1880
Italy	1871
Scotland	1869
Spain	1859
Sweden	1848
Paraguay	1822
France	1808
Czechoslovakia	1772

1960s
Brazil	2007
Soviet Union	1988
England	1975
Hungary	1971
Argentina	1955
West Germany	1934
Czechoslovakia	1911
Italy	1899
Spain	1890
Uruguay	1879
Yugoslavia	1867
Scotland	1853
Sweden	1835
Mexico	1819
Austria	1783

1970s
Brazil	2101
West Germany	2084
England	1993
Italy	1975
Netherlands	1929
Poland	1922
Soviet Union	1914
East Germany	1914
Argentina	1895
Spain	1895
Czechoslovakia	1888
Hungary	1878
Yugoslavia	1874
Scotland	1856
Portugal	1849
Belgium	1836
Romania	1822
Austria	1815
Sweden	1814
France	1801

1980s
Brazil	2009
West Germany	2005
Soviet Union	1986
England	1967
Italy	1931
Argentina	1931
France	1928
Netherlands	1925
Spain	1888
Poland	1871
Belgium	1864
Czechoslovakia	1862
East Germany	1861
Yugoslavia	1860
Scotland	1824
Romania	1822
Denmark	1822
Austria	1817
Wales	1815
Sweden	1815

1990s
Brazil	2032
Germany	2026
Italy	1990
France	1969
Netherlands	1957
Spain	1941
FR Yugoslavia	1939
England	1937
Denmark	1911
Argentina	1896
Croatia	1890
Czechia	1881
Russia	1873
Sweden	1870
Romania	1858
Mexico	1853
Portugal	1843
Republic of Ireland	1819
Colombia	1813
Belgium	1808

2000s
Brazil	2021
France	2013
Netherlands	1999
Argentina	1988
Spain	1986
Italy	1971
England	1947
Germany	1920
Portugal	1917
Czechia	1908
Denmark	1870
Croatia	1868
Mexico	1845
Romania	1835
Sweden	1834
Republic of Ireland	1818
Turkey	1817
United States	1815
Uruguay	1804
Russia	1801

2010s
Brazil	2071
Germany	2069
Spain	2063
Argentina	2005
Netherlands	1999
England	1940
Chile	1918
Portugal	1912
France	1905
Uruguay	1901
Italy	1900
Colombia	1892
Mexico	1876
Croatia	1859
Sweden	1817
Ecuador	1809
Switzerland	1807
Belgium	1798
Russia	1797
Ukraine	1786

Highest rated matches

A list of the 25 matches between teams with the highest combined Elo ratings. The nations' points before the matches are given.

Rank	Combined points	Nation 1	Elo 1	Nation 2	Elo 2	Score	Date	Occasion	Location
1	4287	Germany	2203	Argentina	2084	1–0 aet	2014-07-13	World Cup Final	Rio de Janeiro
		Germany	2223	Argentina	2064	2–4	2014-09-03	Friendly	Düsseldorf
3	4278	Hungary	2230	West Germany	2048	2–3	1954-07-04	World Cup Final	Bern
4	4263	Spain	2136	Netherlands	2127	1–0 aet	2010-07-11	World Cup Final	Johannesburg
5	4245	England	2184	Denmark	2061	4–2	1912-07-04	Olympic Games Final	Stockholm
6	4242	Brazil	2120	Germany	2122	1–7	2014-07-08	World Cup SF	Belo Horizonte
7	4238	West Germany	2114	Brazil	2124	0–1	1973-06-16	Friendly	Berlin
8	4236	Brazil	2086	Spain	2150	3–0	2013-06-30	Confederations Cup Final	Rio de Janeiro
9	4224	Hungary	2208	Uruguay	2016	4–2	1954-06-30	World Cup SF	Lausanne
10	4223	Germany	2104	Brazil	2119	0–1	2018-03-27	Friendly	Berlin
11	4218	Hungary	2180	Brazil	2038	4–2	1954-06-27	World Cup QF	Bern
12	4207	Netherlands	2077	Brazil	2130	2–1	2010-07-02	World Cup QF	Port Elizabeth
13	4200	Brazil	2083	Netherlands	2117	0–0	2011-06-04	Friendly	Goiânia
14	4199	Brazil	2088	West Germany	2111	1–0	1982-03-21	Friendly	Rio de Janeiro
15	4198	Brazil	2060	West Germany	2138	1–1	1977-06-12	Friendly	Rio de Janeiro
16	4197	West Germany	2123	Netherlands	2074	2–1	1974-07-07	World Cup Final	Munich
17	4191	Brazil	2166	Czechoslovakia	2025	3–1	1962-06-17	World Cup Final	Santiago
		West Germany	2135	Brazil	2056	0–1	1978-04-05	Friendly	Hamburg
19	4187	Brazil	2132	Italy	2055	4–1	1970-06-21	World Cup Final	Mexico City
20	4179	Spain	2110	Germany	2069	1–0	2010-07-07	World Cup SF	Durban
		Netherlands	2096	Argentina	2083	0–0	2014-07-09	World Cup SF	São Paulo
22	4177	Germany	2076	Brazil	2101	1–2	1998-03-25	Friendly	Stuttgart
23	4173	West Germany	2097	Netherlands	2076	1–1	1975-05-17	Friendly	Frankfurt
24	4172	West Germany	2104	Poland	2068	1–0	1974-07-03	World Cup 2nd round	Frankfurt
25	4168	England	2141	Denmark	2017	3–0	1911-10-21	Friendly	London

Biggest upsets

This is a list of matches with the biggest point exchange. Since the importance of the match, the goal differential and the perceived home team advantage are factored in the exchange, these are not necessarily the most surprising wins as expressed by the difference in Elo rating.
The nations' points before the matches are given.

Rank	Point exchange	Nation 1	Elo 1	Nation 2	Elo 2	Score	Date	Occasion	Location
1	98	Sweden	1676	Belgium	1845	8–1	1924-05-29	Olympic Games	Paris
2	92	Italy	1824	Spain	1991	7–1	1928-06-04	Olympic Games	Amsterdam
		Turkey	1397	China *	1655	4–0	1948-08-02	Olympic Games	Walthamstow
4	87	Norway	1478	Great Britain	2041	3–1	1920-08-28	Olympic Games	Antwerp
5	84	Egypt *	1677	Hungary	1919	3–0	1924-05-29	Olympic Games	Paris
		Czechoslovakia	1855	Argentina	2003	6–1	1958-06-15	World Cup	Helsingborg
7	83	Fiji	1171	New Zealand	1523	4–0	1980-02-23	OFC Nations Cup	Nouméa
8	82	Ghana	1606	Czech Republic	2005	2–0	2006-06-17	World Cup	Cologne
9	81	Brazil	2120	Germany	2122	1–7	2014-07-08	World Cup	Belo Horizonte
10	80	Germany	1642	Russia *	1567	16–0	1912-07-01	Olympic Games	Solna
		Turkey	1604	South Korea *	1668	7–0	1954-06-20	World Cup	Geneva
		Trinidad and Tobago	1481	Mexico	1783	4–0	1973-12-14	CONCACAF Championship	Port-au-Prince
		South Korea	1677	Germany	2044	2–0	2018-06-28	World Cup	Kazan
14	78	Paraguay	1685	Uruguay	2054	3–0	1929-11-01	Copa América	Buenos Aires
		Chile	1587	Uruguay	1957	3–0	1937-01-10	Copa América	Buenos Aires
16	77	Uruguay	1813	Brazil	2162	3–0	1959-12-12	Copa América	Guayaquil
		Croatia	1912	Germany	2090	3–0	1998-07-04	World Cup	Lyon
18	76	Germany	1906	Norway	1714	0–2	1936-08-07	Olympic Games	Berlin
		Costa Rica	1717	Guatemala	1491	1–4	1946-03-10	CCCF Championship	San José
		United States	1888	Mexico	1788	0–5	2009-07-26	CONCACAF Gold Cup	East Rutherford
21	75	Denmark	1759	Italy	2044	5–3	1948-08-05	Olympic Games	London
		Venezuela	1336	Bolivia	1646	3–0	1967-01-28	Copa América	Montevideo
		Netherlands	1986	Spain	2109	5–1	2014-06-13	World Cup	Salvador
24	74	Chile	1800	Brazil	2032	4–0	1987-07-03	Copa América	Córdoba
25	73	Montserrat	511	British Virgin Islands	758	7–0	2012-09-09	Caribbean Cup qualifier	Fort-de-France

*The initial ratings may be partially responsible for the high point exchange. The national teams of China, Egypt, Russia, and South Korea had played only 18, 3, 2, and 18 international matches before their respective upsets. China had only yet played against East Asian teams.

See also

• Statistical association football predictions

External links

• World Football Elo ratings
• How the rankings are calculated
• FootballDatabase's World Club Ratings (using Elo Formula)