Part 3 - January 2012

Strange goings on in 2011

I've been working on a way of breaking down the FootySimulator Rankings by time period, to make comparisons between great teams of the past and to do other analysis such as comparing the records of different managers. Almost as an afterthought, I decided to run the FootySimulator Rankings for the last calendar year. The existing ranking formula already has a bias towards the most recent results, but when you see the statistics for 2011 only, it gives a startling indication of where certain teams are going.

First some constants. Spain remain #1 and Germany #2, just as for the overall rankings. Portugal, Italy and England remain in the 5-8 places and the likes of Sweden, Russia and the Czech Republic are floating around the 9-16 range. But the differences are quite exciting and one continent deserves a section all to itself.

The Copa America was the major international tournament in 2011 and there was a cocktail of big name flops and surprise hits. Tournament winners Uruguay broke into the top 10 of the FS Rankings last year. For 2011 alone they rank #4. In the other direction, Brazil and Argentina rank #4 and #8 respectively. For 2011, they rank #15 and #16. 25th ranked Paraguay did not even come in the top 50 for 2011. Conversely Peru, Venezuela, Colombia and Chile all finished in the year's top 40. This represents a big improvement for some.

As for the rest, Denmark are the third best side in the world on 2011 form. There should also be honourable mentions for Armenia at #21 (just one place behind France) and Wales at #22 . Meanwhile Scotland are languishing at #37, Norway at #38 and #Turkey at 40 - all way below their overall FootySimulator Rankings.

Of course there is a danger in being too short-termist about rankings. Compared to the club rankings, international football changes at a slower pace, partly due to the relatively small number of competitive internationals each year. In 2012 many nations (most notably Brazil) will have no annual rating at all as they have no competitive international matches during the calendar year. This also explains the absence of Poland and Ukraine from the 2011 list.

Spam of the year

It's time for the now annual round up of the best spam messages of the year. Sadly the 2011 collection lacks some of it's recent quality. and quantity, as I've stopped a lot of the rubbish emails coming through:

• Get a full mast again
• Make your queen wet
• No efforts for raising your rod
• Melts in your mouth, not in your bed
• We'll help your little soldier grow big!
• Stand up little soldier!
• Any lady would like to spend night with you if your item is long