Fifa Rankings
The World Cup tournament serves to prove which country in the world has the best international football team. It’s a battle of skill, ability, tactics and spirit and it all starts in just under a couple of weeks’ time! If you’re a football fan this is, naturally, very good news as you’ll now be treated to a month’s worth of great sporting TV, but if you’re an avid online gambler you should be equally excited.
This is because the World Cup 2018 also grants us hundreds, if not thousands, of brand new betting opportunities. We can bet whether a team will win the competition, whether a team will be eliminated from the competition, whether a certain player will score plenty of goals, whether a certain player will score no goals and so on and so on.
However, whilst for seasoned sports bettors the World Cup can feel similar to being a kid in a sweet shop, for newcomers to football betting it can sometimes feel a bit intimidating. Luckily for you, here at Fortune Frenzy we’re wading through the facts, figures, odds and more to provide you with a comprehensive World Cup 2018 betting guide.
One of the most popular bets you can place this World Cup 2018 is a bet on a certain team to win the competition outright, but how can you work out whose most likely to win? In today’s guide we’re taking a look at the FIFA Men’s World Rankings, which could be the perfect way to work out who to back!
What Are They FIFA World Rankings and How Do They Work?
The FIFA World Ranking are, essentially, a list of all international football teams, ranked by how they have performed in the last year and previous three years combined. They’re created by FIFA (The International Federation of Association Football), who are international governing body of football, and who are also in charge of international tournaments such as the World Cup 2018.
In order to rank the teams FIFA uses a specialized formula, and the results are then converted into points which are displayed alongside the rankings. Points are given for every single international match a team participates in, and the amount awarded depends on these four factors:
- Match Result
- Importance of Match
- Strength of Opposing Team
- Strength of Confederation
To put it simply, teams get more points for winning a match (duh), more points if the match is deemed important (i.e. a competition match as opposed to a friendly), more points if they beat against a team who are ranked higher than them, and more points depending on the overall skill level of the confederation they’re playing in/against.
How Do All The World Cup 2018 Teams Rank?
As all the teams competing in the World Cup 2018 will also have a FIFA World Ranking, we can use the rankings to see which teams should perform well in the tournament. That being said, thanks to the knock-out nature of the World Cup, many of the top ranking teams won’t be participating in the tournament and so you need to consider how the ones that are weigh up against both the others, and in the world rankings as a whole.
Below we have complied a complete list of the 32 competing World Cup 2018 teams, their current FIFA World rank, and the amount of points they currently have. Please note all of these figures are correct as of the 30th of May 2018.
| FIFA World Rank | Team | Total Points |
| 1 | Germany | 1544 |
| 2 | Brazil | 1384 |
| 3 | Belgium | 1346 |
| 4 | Portugal | 1306 |
| 5 | Argentina | 1254 |
| 6 | Switzerland | 1179 |
| 7 | France | 1166 |
| 8 | Spain | 1162 |
| 10 | Poland | 1128 |
| 11 | Peru | 1106 |
| 12 | Denmark | 1054 |
| 13 | England | 1040 |
| 14 | Tunisia | 1012 |
| 15 | Mexico | 1008 |
| 16 | Colombia | 989 |
| 17 | Uruguay | 976 |
| 18 | Croatia | 975 |
| 22 | Iceland | 930 |
| 23 | Sweden | 889 |
| 25 | Costa Rica | 858 |
| 28 | Senegal | 825 |
| 35 | Serbia | 732 |
| 36 | Iran | 727 |
| 40 | Australia | 700 |
| 42 | Morocco | 681 |
| 46 | Egypt | 636 |
| 47 | Nigeria | 635 |
| 55 | Panama | 574 |
| 60 | Japan | 528 |
| 61 | Korea Republic | 520 |
| 66 | Russia (Host Nation) | 493 |
| 67 | Saudi Arabia | 445 |
World Cup 2018 Odds on the Top 3 FIFA Ranking Teams
As we mentioned earlier, the World Cup 2018 gives us plenty of new betting markets and many UK bookmakers are even offering odds ahead of the beginning of the competition.
However, although we do strongly recommend checking out the FIFA World Rankings as part of your research for making smart wagers this summer, the odds on the top three FIFA ranking teams are quite surprising.
1. Germany
Although Germany are the current World Cup defending champions, they are not actually the bookies’ favourites to win this year’s tournament. Instead, their odds currently stand at around 9/2, which may be longer than you were expecting.
2. Brazil
In the whole history of the World Cup, Brazil are the most successful team, having become World Cup champions a grand total of five times. They are also the current favourites to win the World Cup 2018, with odds of around 4/1.
3. Belgium
Although Belgium are currently third in the FIFA World Rankings, they do not even fall within the top five bookies favourites for the World Cup 2018. The odds on Belgium to win the World Cup 2018 stand at around 10/1, which means there’s definitely some value in backing them.
