New Zealand’s Football Ferns have improved their placing in the FIFA women’s world rankings after their recent success at the OFC Women’s Olympic qualifiers.
The Ferns have moved from 30th to 28th place in the latest rankings released in March 2024 by FIFA.
New Zealand’s next opponents, Thailand, have improved their ranking from 48th place to 47th. They have fallen from an all-time high ranking of 28th achieved in September 2018.
New Zealand’s highest-ever position was 16th (in five sets of rankings between December 2013 and March 2016), and their lowest was 30th (December 2023).
The last three years
Fixtures
Game to be played on Saturday April 6, 2024
New Zealand v Thailand
Apollo Projects Stadium, Christchurch, 3pm
Game to be played on Tuesday April 9, 2024
New Zealand v Thailand
Apollo Projects Stadium, Christchurch, 7pm
Latest FIFA women’s rankings
Solomon Islands were the biggest move in the world rankings, moving up 21 places to 88th place after their performances in the Olympic qualifiers.
Oceania rankings
Here are the current rankings for Oceania nations, with latest movements in the rankings:
#28 (+2) Aotearoa New Zealand
#56 Papua New Guinea
#72 Fiji
#88 (+21) Solomon Islands
#98 T(-4) Tonga
#105 (-10) Samoa
#108 (-2) New Caledonia
#112 Tahiti
#113 Cook Islands
#122 (-5) Vanuatu
World rankings
Spain have retained their top spot in the global rankings, while England have moved up two places:
#1 Spain
#2 (+2) England
#3 France
#4 (-2) United States
#5 (+1) Germany
#6 (-1) Sweden
#7 (+1) Japan
#8 (-1) Netherlands
#9 (+1) Canada
#10 (+1) Brazil
How the rankings are calculated
Points are allocated to teams from their most recent games and are weighted using the following criteria:
- Result of the match.
- Home vs away, or neutral ground.
- Importance of the match.
- Difference in ranking between the teams.
Beating a highly-rated team, away, and in a tournament, rather than a friendly, can boost a team’s momentum up the rankings.
A win over a lowly-rated team can have little impact.
Winning or losing, of course, is the most important criteria, but goal difference and goals scored are also taken into account, as is shown in the following table.
READ MORE: The methodology used to rank teams >>>>>
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