Mercurial Tusker ranked best Kenyan club ahead of record champions Gor Mahia

13-time Kenya Premier League champions Tusker might have come off a terrible start to the year in the ongoing 2022/2023 campaign where they only managed two wins in the seven clashes they have played (D3 L2), but the Robert Matano coached side will be impressed to learn that they have been ranked the best Kenyan club ahead of record Kenyan champions Gor Mahia by world leaders in sport data Opta.

According to the Opta Power Rankings released on 2 February - a global team ranking system that assigns an ability score to nearly 13,500 domestic football teams on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world - the Brewers were declared the best team in the country and position 148 on the continent with a rating of 66.6.

19-time Kenyan champions Gor Mahia came second in the country with a rating of 64.8 which placed them on position 213 on the continent.

Surprise package Kakamega Homeboyz, who finished the 2021/2022 campaign as the runners up, were ranked third and 235 on the continent with a rating of 64.2

Zedekiah Otieno’s KCB were placed fourth and 295th on the continent with a rating of 63.0 with Kenya Police rounding off the top five bracket on 62.7

12-time champions AFC Leopards are sixth with their 62.4 rating that placed them on position 322 on the continent.

Ulinzi Stars are seventh (61.8), Bandari eighth (61.70) Nzoia Sugar ninth (61.3) with Sofapaka rounding off the top 10 with 61.2

Outside Kenya, record African champions Al Ahly were crowned the best on the continent with an 80.1 rating. South African powerhouse Mamelodi Sundown was in second place on 79.4 with CAF Champions League defending champions Wydad Casablanca in third place (78.6).

Orlando Pirates was ranked 15th while Kaizer Chiefs were placed on position 41.

Tanzanian giants Simba were ranked twentieth (73.1) on the continent with Yanga in 28th position (72.0).

How are the Power Rankings calculated?

They utilize a hierarchical Elo-based rating system to measure the strength of each team.

The Elo rating system is a skill score which has been adapted to many sports since its creation for chess player ratings, including the official FIFA world rankings for both men and women.

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The Elo algorithm analyses match results from over 2,500,000 games since 1990 to assign a rating to each team that is comparable across leagues, countries, and continents.

Elo Rating System

The aim of the system is simple. After each game, rating points are exchanged between the teams depending on the result. Whatever the home team gains in Elo, the away team will lose the exact same value of Elo (or vice versa). If the home team gains 20 Elo points, the away team will lose 20 Elo points.

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Over the long-term, the Elo rating system is self-correcting. A team will gain or lose points relative to their corresponding Elo rating until the ratings reflect their true strength. If a team is undervalued, they will gain more points in each game until their strength is accurately represented by the system.