Since August 1993, FIFA has started ranking international teams in order to publish comparisons of their relative strengths at regular intervals. Initially one point was given for a draw and three for victory. This system of ranking was very simple and was far from the original objective. FIFA realized that more factors affect the result and to make the ranking more comprehensive, it made the following few changes:

• Scaling up the point ranking by a factor of ten.
• Changing the calculation to take into account:
• Number of goals
• Home or away match
• Importance of Match/Competition
• Regional strength
• Not having fixed points for a victory or a draw.
• Allowing the match losers to earn points.

Previously the evolution period was eight years, but after World Cup 2006, it will be cut down to four years.

FIFA World Rankings 2006: World Top 20 Football (Soccer)Teams