Do FIFA World ranking mean anything?

So many times I have read thru the FIFA World rankings and wondered what matches they were watching.

So I dug in a bit, learned a few things:

Results are considered over the last eight years, which is a long time. Maybe too long, as reputation, in the rankings, too often precedes form.

Rankings are judged with a computer program with the following criteria:

1. Winning, drawing and losing
2. Number of goals
3. Home or away match
4. Importance of the match (multiplication factor)
5. Regional strength (multiplication factor)

For each team only the seven best results per year are given full weighting. May this be too low a number? The World Cup itself is a minimum of 4 matches. If a national team plays 15 matches in a season and lose 8, while wining 7 by the score 2-0, all away, then they will potentially be ranked above a World Cup finalist?


Look here, this is the weighting scheme:

Friendly match x 1.00
Continental championship preliminary x 1.50
World Cup preliminary match x 1.50
Continental championship finals match x 1.75
FIFA Confederations Cup match x 1.75
World Cup finals match x 2.00

Notice a World Cup finals match is given only 2x the weight of a friendly and no extra is given for reaching knockouts or finals of competitions.

How can a rankings system mean anything if it does not reflect accurately the importance of a match?