New Zealand’s Football Ferns have held their 28th position in the FIFA women’s world rankings.
The Ferns moved from 30th to 28th place in the March 2024 rankings and that position has been maintained after the team’s latest international friendlies against Japan in Spain.
New Zealand’s highest-ever position was 16th (in five sets of rankings between December 2013 and March 2016), and their lowest was 30th (December 2023).
Latest FIFA women’s rankings
In Oceania, Samoa made the biggest jump with four spots to edge close to the top 100, while New Caledonia climbed two spots.
Oceania rankings
Here are the current rankings for Oceania nations, with the latest movements in the rankings:
#28 Aotearoa New Zealand
#57 (-1) Papua New Guinea
#72 Fiji
#88 Solomon Islands
#97 T(+1) Tonga
#101 (+4) Samoa
#106 (+2) New Caledonia
#111 (+1) Tahiti
#112 (+1) Cook Islands
#121 (+1) Vanuatu
World rankings
Spain have retained their top spot in the global rankings, while England have moved up two places:
#1 Spain
#2 (+1) France
#3 (-1) England
#4 (+1) Germany
#5 (-1) United States
#6 Sweden
#7 Japan
#8 (+1) Canada
#9 (+1) Brazil
#10 (+1) Korea DPR
How the rankings are calculated
Points are allocated to teams from their most recent games and are weighted using the following criteria:
- Result of the match.
- Home vs away, or neutral ground.
- Importance of the match.
- Difference in ranking between the teams.
Beating a highly-rated team, away, and in a tournament, rather than a friendly, can boost a team’s momentum up the rankings.
A win over a lowly-rated team can have little impact.
Winning or losing, of course, is the most important criteria, but goal difference and goals scored are also taken into account, as is shown in the following table.
READ MORE: The methodology used to rank teams >>>>>
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