MarcFisher.co.uk : National Manager

National Manager

Even Long Shots Make It

On 7th September 2002 Scotland's national football team drew with Faroe Islands in one of our worst results ever. That night I contacted the Scottish Football Association saying as protest to the way the team was being run by manager Berti Vogts, that I no longer wished to be considered for international selection. On 1st November 2004 (two whole years later) Beri Vogts resigned from the job. I knew I could have done a better managing the team than Berti, and he lasted more than two years.

A few years later the Scotland job was vacant again, so I decided to apply. The Scottish Football Association didn't ever reply, but I was one step closer to becoming a national manager. There are 207 international football teams. One down, 206 to go.

A plan like this takes two things; a logo, which would be easy enough to make, and some way to order all 207 teams. Luckily for that one the people at Fifa are nice enough to rank all the teams, from Brazil to Papua New Guinea. Now I was ready to become a national manager.

Ranking*	Country	Applications	Auto-Replies	Replies
1	Brazil	Application
2	Spain	Application
3	Netherlands	Application
4	Italy	Application
5	Germany	Application
6	Russia	Application
7	England	Application
8	Argentina	Application
9	France	Application
10	Croatia	Application
11	USA	Application
12	Greece	Application
13	Serbia	Application
14	Australia	Application	Auto-Reply
15	Switzerland	Application
16	Denmark	Application
17	Portugal	Application
18	Czech Republic	Application
19	Bulgaria	Application
20	Côte d'Ivoire	Application
21	Chile	Application
22	Israel	Application
23	Paraguay	Application
24	Mexico	Application
25	Ukraine	Application
26	Romania	Application
27	Turkey	Application
28	Uruguay	Application
29	Cameroon	Application
30	Scotland	Application	Auto-Reply
31	Northern Ireland	Application		Reply
32	Egypt	Application
33	Ghana	Application
34	Nigeria	Application
35	Gabon	Application
36	Ecuador	Application
37	Poland	Application
38	Republic of Ireland	Application
39	Costa Rica	Application
40	Japan	Application
41	Sweden	Application
42	Honduras	Application
43	Norway	Application	Auto-Reply
44	Algeria	Application
45	Slovakia	Application
46	Bosnia-Herzegovina	Application
47	Hungary	Application
48	Colombia	Application
49	Korea Republic	Application
50	Tunisia	Application
51	Venezuela	Application
52	Burkina Faso	Application
53	Mali	Application
54	Slovenia	Application
55	Guinea	Application
56	FYR Macedonia	Application
57	Morocco	Application
58	Latvia	Application
59	Bolivia	Application
60	Iran	Application
61	Finland	Application	Auto-Reply
62	Lithuania	Application
63	Trinidad and Tobago	Application
64	Bahrain	Application
65	Saudi Arabia	Application
66	Canada	Application
67	Wales	Application
68	Belgium	Application
69	Jamaica	Application
70	Austria	Application
71	Togo	Application
72	Uganda	Application
73	South Africa	Application
74	Oman	Application
75	Panama	Application
76	Cyprus	Application
77	Belarus	Application
78	Benin	Application
79	Congo	Application
80	Senegal	Application
81	Zambia	Application
82	Libya	Application
83	Qatar	Application
84	Mozambique	Application
85	El Salvador	Application
86	Uzbekistan	Application
87	Cuba	Application
88	Moldova	Application
89	Montenegro	Application
90	Korea DPR	Application
91	Peru	Application
92	Angola	Application
93	Albania	Application
94	Tanzania	Application
95	Syria	Application
96	Sudan	Application
97	Iceland	Application
98	Iraq	Application
99	Gambia	Application
100	New Zealand	Application	Auto-Reply
101	Namibia	Application
102	Fiji	Application
103	Barbados	Application
104	Kenya	Application
105	Malawi	Application
106	Antigua and Barbuda	Application
107	China PR	Application
108	Grenada	Application
109	Haiti	Application		Reply
110	Kuwait	Application		Reply
111	Guatemala	Application
112	Georgia	Application
113	Cape Verde Islands	Application
114	Estonia	Application
115	Thailand	Application
116	Luxembourg	Application
117	Rwanda	Application
118	Congo DR	Application
119	Suriname	Application
120	Zimbabwe	Application
121	Sierra Leone	Application
122	Guyana	Application	Auto-Reply
123	United Arab Emirates	Application
124	Chad	Application
125	Armenia	Application
126	Burundi	Application
127	Singapore	Application
128	Hong Kong	Application
129	Jordan	Application
130	Equatorial Guinea	Application
131	Madagascar	Application
132	Botswana	Application
133	Indonesia	Application
134	New Caledonia	Application
135	Niger	Application
136	Kazakhstan	Application
137	Ethiopia	Application
138	Vanuatu	Application
139	Azerbaijan	Application
140	Malta	Application
141	Nicaragua	Application
142	Yemen	Application
143	Kyrgyzstan	Application
144	Liberia	Application
145	Myanmar	Application
146	Vietnam	Application
147	Turkmenistan	Application
148	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	Application		Reply
149	India	Application
150	Lebanon	Application
151	Liechtenstein	Application
152	Malaysia	Application
153	St. Kitts and Nevis	Application
154	Bermuda	Application
155	Maldvies	Application
156	Swaziland	Application
157	Eritrea	Application
158	Philippines	Application
159	Sri Lanka	Application
160	Lesotho	Application
161	Mauritania	Application
162	Solomon Islands	Application
163	Faroe Islands	Application
164	Netherlands Antilles	Application
165	Puerto Rico	Application
166	Chinese Taipei	Application
167	Bangladesh	Application
168	Pakistan	Application
169	Somalia	Application
170	Laos	Application
171	Cambodia	Application
172	Tajikistan	Application
173	Palestine	Application
174	Mongolia	Application
175	Nepal	Application
176	Belize	Application
177	Bahamas	Application
178	Seychelles	Application
179	Turks and Caicos Islands	Application
180	Brunei Darussalam	Application
181	Cayman Islands	Application
182	Mauritius	Application
183	Dominican Republic	Application
184	Samoa	Application
185	Guinea-Bissau	Application
186	Guam	Application
187	Cook Islands	Application
188	Djibouti	Application
189	Tahiti	Application
190	St. Lucia	Application
191	Afghanistan	Application
192	British Virgin Islands	Application		Reply
193	Macau	Application
194	Tonga	Application
195	Andorra	Application
196	Bhutan	Application
197	Dominica	Application
198	Aruba	Application
199	Timor-Leste	Application
200	US Virgin Islands	Application
201	Comoros	Application
202	Central African Republic	Application
203	San Marino	Application
204	Anguilla	Application
205	Montserrat	Application
206	American Samoa	Application
207	Papua New Guinea	Application

*Ranking as at 01 Oct 2009