Strongest football nations by Elo Ratings

National football teams can be ranked by their average Elo scores over time periods, following similar approaches in for example chess. The averages over time are calculated from the scores on the World Football Elo Ratings web site.

Strongest teams since the mid to late 1960s

Based on the average Elo score from January 1, 1970 to January 1, 2012. As the Elo scores reflect the previous successes of a team, the list probably displays the relative strengths of national teams since the mid to late 1960s. Before this time intercontinental play was fairly limited and many nations in Africa, North America, and Asia had played too few games yet to create a representative Elo score. Strong "short-lived" or young countries like East Germany and Croatia are not in this list, but can occur in the tables below showing the top teams per decade.

Strongest teams per decade

The table below shows the teams with the best average Elo score per decade (Jan 1 19X0 - Dec 31 19X9). Again, because the scores reflect past achievements, the averages are representative of the teams' strengths for a decade starting and ending sometimes a few years earlier.

See also

• Methods for comparing top chess players throughout history

Notes and references

1. ^ Representing West Germany from 1949-1990
2. ^ Combined record of the USSR (1970-1992), the CIS (1992), and Russia (1992-present)
3. ^ Combined record of Czechoslovakia national football team (1970-1992) and the Czech Republic (1993-present)
4. ^ Combined record of Yugoslavia (1970-1992), Serbia and Montenegro (1994-2006) and Serbia (2006-present)

Source

• World Football Elo ratings