Asia's top club - China's Guangzhou Evergrande - is ranked 36th in the world. Credit:Getty Images Surely this can’t be right. So The Far Post borrowed Jose Mourinho’s Black & Decker to drill down into the data. The formula and criteria employed by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics is fairly straightforward. Therein may lie the problem. Each league is given a weighting from four to one, based on the rankings of the previous calendar year. All wins and draws of clubs in that calendar year score points, which are also weighted according to the level of the competition. Continental competitions such as the Champions League and Copa Libertadores score highest with all manner of cups taken into account. So it’s self-perpetuating in some respects, and the rich tend to get richer. The Asian Champions League rates highly, and this is where the A-League fell down last year. The Mariners won two, drew one and lost five in a disappointing ACL campaign, while the all-conquering Roar didn’t even make the group phase. So the performance of one team in Asia can skew the ranking for the whole league, as did Adelaide’s great run to the quarter-finals when they crashed out agonisingly in extra time in 2012 when the A-League ranked 52nd. That’s a big swing.

The 924th-ranked Brisbane Roar didn't fare well in last season's Asian Champions League, failing to qualify for the group phase. Credit:Getty Images The A-League is comparatively small with only 10 teams, and even with three rounds, doesn’t play enough matches to earn the points the standard of play might otherwise warrant. Australia has no domestic cup competition for A-League teams to rack up easy points at the expense of minnows either. The latest IFC Club World Ranking makes even grimmer reading. Central Coast Mariners, the A-League champions (finally) are all the way down at 546, sandwiched between Cotonsport of Cameroon and Valerenga of Norway. The next best A-League side is Brisbane Roar all the way down at 924 (there’s a chant in there somewhere). Again the Mariners and Roar only registered a blip because they dipped a toe into Asia. To put them into perspective, Asia’s top club, big-spending Guangzhou Evergrande of China, is way up in 36. The numbers add up to an uncomfortable conclusion: maybe Australia is a backwater of the world game, somewhere south of the Congo and that other Congo.

But like shopping for jeans, if you look long enough through the racks of stats at the back, you’ll find a pair to fit. (Take nothing away from the IFFHS; they do great work. It should also be pointed out that about 95 per cent of journalists get statistics wrong about 95 per cent of the time [margin of error +/-5%]. The rest work in the business section.) At the end of last season, World Soccer magazine did a survey based on attendances, goals per game, league income, players at the World Cup, managerial pedigree, competitiveness, even new stadiums, as well as continental performances. Their league table was topped predictably by Germany and England while Australia scraped into the top 20, tied with Colombia, Poland, Ecuador, UAE, Paraguay, Uruguay, South Africa and Scotland. That’s more like it. They may have cast the net a little too wide but some of those criteria have merit. Why not add in average TV audiences. The most recent surveys of league and club attendances available (for 2012) put the A-League (average 12,556) third in Asia behind the J-League (17,556) and China’s Super League (18,740). Melbourne Victory were the only A-League club to crack the top 200 globally, coming in at 154 (19,208), and seventh in Asia. The A-league is running about 13,500 this season, with the Victory nudging 23,000. Like those who continually spruik “the sleeping giant” about Australian football and the death riders who feel threatened by the very mention of the word “football”, the truth about the A-League lies somewhere in between. It isn’t as bad as 99th. In fact, it’s the No.1 football (OK soccer) league in Australia, and it’s come along way in a short time, admittedly with a few missteps (North Qld Fury, Clive Palmer).

The FFA’s real challenge is to convert those untold thousands of football fans here who’ll sit up until all hours to watch their favourite team in the EPL or Scotland or Italy or the Championship or wherever to adopt and actively support an A-League team. Manchester City have just picked up Melbourne Heart for the price of a reserve defender, and Liverpool are reportedly looking at Melbourne Victory, not surprising after the reception they got last year. There are obvious tie-ins to be exploited that could have a flow-on effect. You can’t go to an A-League match without seeing punters in an array of European team shirts that bear no relation to the sides actually playing. With the FFA Cup due to kick off this year, at least Australian football will score a few more points to rocket up those imaginary stats leagues and lists that give us something to chew over until Saturday comes. Then again, a couple of pesky park sides might go on a fairytale, giantkilling run ... Spray of the week "It’s time to kill the horses. Manchester City is a Jaguar. You cannot put an L-plate on a Jaguar."

Jose Mourinho channels Eric Cantona in trying to explain why Chelsea are no longer the “little horse” of the title race but L-plate drivers compared with Man City, after the Blues went top. Does that make them EPL-platers? You’d never guess that Jose was once a translator for the late Sir Robby Bobson. Chant of the week “We’re staying up!” Gallows humour from the Manchester United faithful after Fulham’s Fergie time equaliser at the House of Horrors.