Worst In The World: thailand

Monday, 25 March 2013

Thailand 5-0 Bhutan - November 2012

14^th November 2012

Rajamangala National Stadium, Bangkok

Thailand 5-0 Bhutan

Thailand showed no mercy to Bhutan in this one sided match, with the magnificently named Apipoo Sunthornpanavei scoring twice in the first 5 minutes to effectively end this contest before it had even begun. That’s not to say that Bhutan didn’t have a few chances of their own, but sadly couldn’t convert.

November 2012 - Latest Rankings and Looking Ahead

With San Marino’s two latest defeats being the only action for us, there are no changes at the foot of the World Rankings. So San Marino, Bhutan and Turks & Caicos remain the three worst teams in the world.

Next month sees action for two of our teams however, so two opportunities for ranking points. San Marino continue their World Cup odyssey with a trip across the Adriatic to Montenegro and Bhutan are back in action with a friendly match in Thailand.

Hopes are not high.

14^th November 2012

Bangkok, Thailand

Thailand v. Bhutan

Bhutan see their first action in almost a year when they travel to Bangkok to face Thailand.

Thailand currently sit 152^nd in the world rankings, worryingly low for them but comfortably ahead of Bhutan. Indeed this is Thailand’s worst ever world ranking, so they will be hoping for a comfortable win to start their climb back up the table.

Bhutan surely only represent whipping boys in this one; an easy opponent to get Thailand’s form going again ahead of the AFF Suzuki Cup tournament Thailand are hosting later in the month against the cream of South East Asia.

14^th November 2012

Podgorica, Montenegro

Montenegro v. San Marino preview

San Marino are back in World Cup action this week with the return match in Montenegro after the 6-0 drubbing in Serravalle in September. Any improvement on that score would be a pleasant bonus. Anything more than that is simply ludicrous.

What's This All About?

It’s all too easy to focus on the successful teams in international football, Spain, Brazil, Germany etc. We all know what’s going on with them, usually winning, and can easily follow their crowning glories on the international stage. But what about life at the other end of the scale?

FIFA’s world rankings allow us to easily see who is officially the worst national football team in the world, and this site simply follows that team (or teams) until they manage to drag themselves kicking and screaming from the foot of the world rankings to be replaced by someone even worse. And then we follow them instead.

In the past the FIFA rankings made it clear who was the very worst of all, as the complex ranking formula rarely caused a tie for last place. Since 2006 the formula has been rather simplified, I won’t go into detail but many factors were removed to make things easier to understand. The result though is that down at the bottom of the rankings we often now have a cluster of ineptitude (or should it be a splat of ineptitude?) with several nations judged to equally as useless as each other for the simple reason that they lose all their games. In the past they’d have received some credit for a narrow defeat against a top side, but no more. To get off the bottom they are going to have to win or draw a match, something that often proves beyond most of them.

We’re here to highlight their struggles against hopelessness, and bring the occasional heart warming story of marginal success.