World Rankings 2008
There is currently no official system of World Rankings for Australian Football, most likely because the international game is still mostly amateur and still maturing so there are insufficient matches between the nations to reliably compare them. Even when there are matches, countries are often restricted by the inability of players to always be available for travel.
However, worldfootynews.com has attempted to create an unofficial ranking in 2008, complete with a series of articles leading up to the final list which allowed readers, players and officials to contribute to the debate. The main caveats and a complete list of discussion articles are given below the rankings.
worldfootynews.com World Rankings 2008
| 1 |  | Australia |
| 2 |  | Papua New Guinea |
| 3 |  | New Zealand |
| 4 |  | South Africa |
| 5 |  | Ireland |
| 6 |  | Nauru |
| 7 |  | Canada |
| 8 |  | United States |
| =9 |  | Japan |
| =9 |  | Great Britain |
| 11 |  | Samoa |
| 12 |  | Denmark |
| 13 |  | Sweden |
| 14 |  | Croatia |
| 15 |  | Germany |
| 16 |  | Peace Team |
| 17 |  | Finland |
| 18 |  | Tonga |
| 19 |  | France |
| 20 |  | Catalonia |
| 21 |  | China |
| 22 |  | India |
We determined 22 teams fit the criteria, up from 17 two years earlier. The new teams added since our 2006 list are Croatia, the Peace Team, Finland, Catalonia, China and India. The only country lapsing is Spain - hopefully we'll see them return soon.
The biggest movers were Nauru (up from 12th to 6th), the US (down from 4th to 8th) and Denmark (perhaps unluckily down from 7th to 12th).
Caveats
- Final rankings are ordered based on the votes of six worldfootynews.com staff
- Although every effort has been made to be thorough, rankings are always subjective and ours do not purport to be official
- Nations must be considered likely to have at least 20 or so players available under IC08 rules (this excludes expat-Australians)
- Based on players expected to meet IC08 eligibility criteria and likely to be available, e.g. Irish players in the AFL thus far have not been available for Ireland (else Ireland would clearly be ranked #2), whereas Australia has 1000s of amateur and semi-pro players who would be available for such tournaments as IC08 if Australia was included
- Relies heavily on IC08 results and limited other internationals, taking into account whether nations sent near full-strength teams to the other tournaments
- Great Britain ranked as a whole primarily as they compete as such at International Cups
- Israel-Palestine Peace Team ranked as they competed as such at IC08 and at this stage would be unlikely to be able to form separate teams
- Catalonia listed independent of Spain as they appear to have remained separate in Australian football terms and Spain's have ceased making (for now at least) international appearances
Background Discussion
- Debate - World footy rankings 2008 - Peace Team, Great Britain and Catalonia
- Debate - World footy rankings 2008 - the Irish question
- Debate - World footy rankings 2008 - other countries to consider
- Debate - World footy rankings 2008 - IC08 placings
- Debate - World footy rankings 2008 - Where to place non-IC08 teams?