We all know how good Germany is at soccer, but the Germans are no slouches at hockey. That's why Germany tops the first-ever hockey-football world rankings. Canada, meanwhile, has a little work to do to improve on its 40th rank among 49 nations.
When Germany won the World Cup last weekend, it vaulted the country to the top of FIFA’s most recent world rankings. It also made Germany the best hockey-football playing country in the world.
Nothing defines a country’s athletic prowess more than its ability to excel in both soccer and hockey. (Why, you ask? Because we said so and it’s summer and in case you haven’t noticed, the hockey world is not exactly brimming with activity these days.) One is known as The Beautiful Game™ and the other one features corner kicks and lots of falling down and gnashing of teeth.
Think about it. Soccer and hockey are the only two games in the world where ties are decided by penalty shots. The greatest soccer players are known by just one name – he said Kaka – and so are the greatest hockey players. Just as Sid and Ovie.
We thought it would be fun to rank the top hockey-football countries on the world based on their rankings by FIFA and the International Ice Hockey Federation. In what was a precise and painstaking procedure, we added the two of them together and the lower the total, the higher the ranking.
We included the 49 countries that are ranked by both bodies. So where did Canada finish? Well, let’s put it this way: Iceland, Australia, Turkey, South Africa and United Arab Emirates all finished ahead.
RK. COUNTRY IIHF FIFA TOTAL
1. Germany 13 1 14
2. Switzerland 7 9 16
3. USA 6 15 21
4. France 12 10 22
5. Russia 3 23 26
6. Netherlands 25 3 28
7. Sweden 1 29 30
8. Italy 18 14 32
9. Spain 30 8 38
10. Czech Republic 5 35 40
11. Denmark 15 26 41
Belgium 36 5 41
13. Ukraine 20 22 42
England 22 20 42
15. Croatia 28 17 45
16. Slovenia 14 37 51
Mexico 33 18 51
18. Slovakia 8 46 54
19. Romania 27 28 55
20. Finland 2 55 57
Hungary 19 38 57
22. Austria 16 43 59
Greece 46 13 59
24. Norway 10 53 63
25. Japan 21 45 66
Serbia 31 31 62
27. Turkey 41 32 73
28. Korea 23 56 79
29. Iceland 35 47 82
30. Poland 24 61 85
31. Belarus 11 81 92
32. Israel 32 67 99
33. South Africa 40 66 106
34. Australia 34 76 110
UAE 45 65 110
36. Bulgaria 39 72 111
37. Latvia 9 103 112
38. Ireland 44 70 114
39. Estonia 29 92 121
40. Canada 4 118 122
41. Lithuania 26 104 130
42. China 38 94 132
43. New Zealand 37 101 138
44. Georgia 47 96 143
45. Kazakhstan 17 129 146
46. Luxembourg 42 108 150
47. DPR Korea 43 163 206
48. Hong Kong 48 162 210
49. Mongolia 49 189 238