FIFA Women's World Rankings

The FIFA Women's World Rankings for football (soccer) were introduced in July 2003 as a follow-on to the existing FIFA World Rankings for men. Like the men's rankings, the Women's World Rankings attempt to compare the strength of internationally active teams at any given time.

Related Topics:
FIFA - Football (soccer) - July - 2003 - FIFA World Rankings

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There are several important differences between the men's and women's rankings:

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• The women's rankings are only published four times a year—in March, June, September and December—while the men's rankings are published monthly.
• The women's rankings are based on every international match a country has ever played, going back as far as 1971, the date of the first FIFA-recognized women's international between France and the Netherlands. The men's rankings only consider matches in the last eight years.
• The calculation of the women's rankings is not weighted to give more emphasis to more recent results. In the men's rankings, results from each year considered in the calculation are weighted on a sliding scale, with more recent results given more weight.
 
FIFA Women's World Rankings: Top 20 Ranking as of June 2005 ►