When the Dutch women dropped three spots at the FIFA ranking a couple of weeks ago, I realized this ranking doesn’t justify the performances of the Leeuwinnen. In Europe there are fewer and fewer friendlies possible. The Dutch haven’t been able to play friendlies since July 2023. This is because of the Nations League. And the Nations League created a way to make the Euro qualifiers much more competitive. It’s harder to win games during international windows, compared to countries from other continents, who have gained positions in the FIFA ranking. They play friendlies and can choose wisely their contestors, and play lesser opponents, so they’re able to win and gain points for the FIFA ranking. That’s not the case for European countries anymore.
How does The Netherlands drop below North Korea?
In Europe the UEFA wanted to create more competitive international windows during the year. That’s why they’ve introduced the Nations League in 2023. The 16 best countries coming out of the Nations League were playing qualifiers for the Euro’s in the spring. This way the euro qualifiers are much more competitive than they were before. Past Euro Qualifiers were just a bunch of European countries, and quality was way more inconsistent. In 2021 The Dutch won with 7-0 from Estland twice, and 6-0 from Kosovo. Because of the Nations League top countries don’t play against these teams anymore because they’re litteraly out of their league.
Opponents for The Netherlands:
Since the World Cup Oranje Leeuwinnen had to play 8 out of 16 games at World Cup contenders and higher ranked countries at FIFA. The Coëfficiency average of opponents is 12.8 for the Oranje Leeuwinnen.
No1. Spain – (Semi-final Nations League) – (Winner WC23)
No3. England – (Twice in the Nations League group stage) – (Finalist WC23)
No4. Germany – (Olympic qualifiers/Nations League 3d place) – (Groupstage WC23)
No15. Italy – (Twice Euro Qualifiers) – (Groupstage WC23)
No16. Norway – (Twice Euro Qualifiers) – (8th finalist WC23)
No 18. Belgium – (Twice in Nations League)
No 23. Schotland – (Twice in Nations League)
No 25. Finland – (Twice in Euro Qualifiers)
Opponents for North Korea.
North Korea, who is now placed above The Netherlands in the FIFA Ranking by playing games against way lesser opponents. Only 6 matches out of 16 were played against contenders at the World Cup of 2023. The Coëfficiency average of opponents is 59.28 for North Korea.
No 7. Japan (Quarter final WC23)
No 19. China (Group Stage WC23)
No 20. South-Korea (Group Stage WC23)
No 27. Russia
No 41. Chinese Taipei
No 46. Thailand
No 47. Uzbekistan
No 79. Hong Kong
No 128. Mongolia
No 138. Singapore
Not Ranked: Northern Mariana Islands
See past matches from North Korea.
Solution!
Since this ranking isn’t really representive of their performances, I made a page containing all of the performances of the Oranje Leeuwinnen at the latest tournaments, next to the FIFA and UEFA ranking.
Click down the button to visit the new page.
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