FIFA Men's World Ranking
World ranking list
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Key Takeaways
- The FIFA Men's World Ranking is a ranking system for men's national teams in association football, first introduced in December 1992.
- As of January 2026, the rankings were led by Spain.
- A points system is used, with points being awarded based on the results of all FIFA-recognised full international matches.
- Since 16 August 2018, the ranking system has adopted the Elo rating system used in chess and Go.
- Coca-Cola also sponsors the women's counterpart.
The FIFA Men's World Ranking is a ranking system for men's national teams in association football, first introduced in December 1992. The men's teams of the member nations of FIFA, football's world governing body, are ranked based on their game results with the most successful teams being ranked the highest. As of January 2026, the rankings were led by Spain. Eight teams (Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain) have held the top position, of which Brazil have spent the longest time ranked first.
A points system is used, with points being awarded based on the results of all FIFA-recognised full international matches. The ranking system has been revamped on several occasions, generally responding to criticism that the preceding calculation method did not effectively reflect the relative strengths of the national teams. Since 16 August 2018, the ranking system has adopted the Elo rating system used in chess and Go. The ranking is sponsored by The Coca-Cola Company; as such, the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking name is also used. Coca-Cola also sponsors the women's counterpart.
Calculation method
The current calculation method has been in use since August 2018, having been introduced in the ranking release after the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The formula is based on the Elo rating system and after each game points are added to or subtracted from a team's rating according to the formula:
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