The Golden Jaguars recent showing in the 2022 CONCACAF Nations League, which serves as the qualifiers for the 2023 Gold Cup, has resulted in a FIFA ranking of 172nd out of 211 affiliated nations.
This was confirmed by the world governing body FIFA following the official publication of the June 23rd rankings. The Guyanese sit on 968.74 points, and improved on their previous position of 174th in the March publication.
The team, which was ranked 175th during the February edition, is currently sandwiched between Caribbean rivals Grenada [171st], and St. Lucia [172nd].
Guyana defeated Montserrat and Bermuda by 2-1 margins but suffered embarrassing defeats to Haiti in consecutive matches 2-6, and 0-6. Guyana’s best ever ranking was 86th and was achieved in 2010 while their worst position was 185th in 2004. Overall, Guyana’s average ranking has been 151st. The next ranking is set to be published on August 25th.
Meanwhile, the Lady Jaguars, the Guyana national women’s team is are currently ranked 90th at 1247.77 points following the official publication on June 17th. The rankings remain unchanged from the March edition.
In their recent international fixtures, the Lady Jaguars ended with a record of two wins and as many draws. Guyana defeated Dominica 4-0, and Turks and Caicos 7-0. However, they drew with Nicaragua 0-0, and Trinidad and Tobago 2-2. Presently, the Guyanese sit between Senegal [89th] and Bolivia [91st].
The Lady Jaguars best ever ranking was 76th achieved in March 2017. Conversely, their worst position was 142nd in July 2015. The team has also been unranked following a dormancy of two years.
The men’s FIFA World Ranking for national teams in association football is currently led by Brazil. The teams are ranked based on their game results with the most successful teams being ranked highest.
The rankings were introduced in December 1992, and eight teams (Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain) have held the top position with Brazil spending the longest at the top.
The Women’s FIFA World Rankings, which currently comprise a total of 181 teams and is headed by the Unites States of America (USA), was introduced in 2003. The USA, and Germany are the only two nations to have sat atop the standings. The duo have held the top two spots in all but six editions of the rankings when the Germans were ranked third. 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.
The current version of the ranking structure was first used on 16 August, 2018, adapted from the Elo rating system used in chess.
