The FIFA ranking of a national team can have a major impact on their ability to play football in the UK.
In both men’s and women’s football the autopass criteria depends on the ranking of a national team and the percentage of minutes that a player has played for the team over the last twelve months.
The rankings also have a massive impact on ESC for English teams. Two of the ESC clauses involve international football, one for senior football, and one for underage international football. The key ranking cut-off here is at #50, for nations ranked 50 or below a player needs only one competitive international appearance at any level to qualify for an ESC, at ranking 51 or above they need five competitive appearances to qualify for an ESC.