<P> Still, criticisms of the rankings remained, with particular anomalies being noted including: the United States rise to fourth in 2006, to the surprise of even their own players; Israel's climb to 15th in November 2008, which surprised the Israeli press,; and Belgium's rank of world number 1 in November 2015, given that Belgium had only played in one tournament final stage in the past 13 years; </P> <P> Further criticisms of the 2006 - 2018 formula included the inability of hosts of major tournaments to retain a high place in the rankings, as the team participated in only lower - value friendly matches due to their automatic qualification for the tournament . For example, 2014 FIFA World Cup hosts Brazil fell to a record low ranking of 22nd in the world prior to that tournament, at which they then finished fourth . 2018 FIFA World Cup hosts Russia had the lowest ranking (70th) at the tournament, where they reached quarterfinals . </P> <P> In the 2010s, teams realized the ranking system could be' gamed', specifically by avoiding playing non-competitive matches, particularly against weaker opponents . This was because the low weighting of friendlies meant that even victories could reduce a team's average score: in other words, a team could win a match and lose points . Prior to the seeding of the 2018 World Cup preliminary draw, Romania even appointed a ranking consultant, playing only one friendly in the year before the draw . Similar accusations had been made against Switzerland, who were a seeded team at the 2014 FIFA World Cup having played only three friendly matches in the previous year, and Poland before the 2018 FIFA World Cup . </P> <P> The use of regional strength multiplier in the ranking formula before 2018 was also accused of further reinforcing and perpetuating the bias for and against certain regions . FIFA's use of regional multiplier was cited as a primary reason why most teams in AFC (Asia) and CONCACAF (North America) held significantly lower FIFA rankings compared to their position in the World Football Elo Rankings . </P>

Top 32 football teams in the world 2018