- Futsal nations around world ranked globally for first time
- Brazil top both men’s and women’s charts; Portugal and Spain complete top three
- New Zealand men ranked 19th among 139 nations, NZ women ranked 26.
FIFA has launched the official FIFA Futsal World Ranking with powerhouses Brazil the first number-one nation in both the men’s and women’s charts as the rapidly growing sport takes another major step forward.
Although the FIFA/Coca-Cola Men’s World Rankings for football has existed since December 1992 and women’s senior national football teams have been officially ranked by FIFA since 2003, that has not previously been the case for futsal. However, the indoor game has enjoyed exponential growth in recent years and this milestone moment represents the natural next step, as well as being the first time that FIFA men’s and women’s rankings have been launched concurrently.
The New Zealand men’s team are ranked 19th among the 139 ranked nations after qualifying for the FIFA Futsal World Cup in Uzbekistan 2024.
The next highest ranked country in the Oceania Football Confederation is Tahiti at 45 ahead of the Solomon Islands (59), New Caledonia (65), Vanuatu (71), Fiji (77), American Samoa (115), Samoa (132) and Tonga (137).
The New Zealand women are also the highest ranked team from OFC at 26, with New Caledonia the other ranked women’s team at 33.
Broadcasts of the FIFA Futsal World Cup™ in Lithuania in 2021 attracted an average of 2.42 million viewers per match, a massive 130% increase on the previous edition in 2016. The FIFA Futsal World Cup 2024™ in Uzbekistan – which is set to be the first FIFA tournament to be staged in Central Asia – is likely to improve even on those impressive numbers, and a historic first FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup™ will be held in 2025. Against this backdrop, FIFA has rolled out global rankings for its member associations’ women’s and men’s senior futsal national teams in recognition of the dynamic development of and global interest in the sport.
The initial rankings have been based on statistics gathered from over 4,600 “A” matches. FIFA defines an international “A” match as a match between two FIFA members for which both members field their first representative team (“A” team).
The new rankings system will also serve to seed teams for all upcoming editions of the FIFA Futsal World Cup – including during the recently announced draw for the 2024 competition in Uzbekistan. The system will likewise be used for qualification processes and enable comprehensive and consistent data to be gathered to monitor member associations in accordance with the FIFA Regulations Governing International Matches. That will support the prevention of practices that jeopardise the integrity of the sport, such as match manipulation.
In the nine editions of the FIFA Futsal World Cup to date, the inaugural top-ranked men’s side, Brazil, have been crowned world champions five times and only failed to finish on the podium once. They are closely followed in the chart by Portugal, who arrive at this year’s FIFA Futsal World Cup as the title holders and have won the last two European crowns. Portugal’s Iberian neighbours Spain – double FIFA Futsal World Cup winners (2000 and 2004) and seven-time European champions – are third in the standings.
Brazil’s women’s national team have been just as dominant as their male counterparts, having won all seven of the South American championships that they have contested. Spain and Portugal are again behind them in the women’s ranking, albeit in reverse order: three-time European champions Spain are second, with Portugal – who have finished runners-up to their Iberian rivals in two continental finals – in third.
FIFA PRESS RELEASE
