Whitstable Town FC

The FIFA World Rankings were introduced in August 1993 to make it possible to publish comparisons of the relative strengths of internationally active teams at regular intervals.

The rankings obtained are, unsurprisingly, the subject of considerable debate. They are based on performances over an eight year period, which means that teams with consistent good performances are highly ranked, but on the other hand the rankings are fairly slow to respond significantly to changes in form. A number of alternative systems have been devised, such as the World Football ELO Ratings, based on the Elo rating system used in chess. The UFWC (Unofficial Football World Championships) ranks teams on an all-time basis.