Hibs up 17 places in latest Global Club Ranking list with Easter Road side ahead of Aberdeen, LA Galaxy and Sunderland

Hibs have risen 17 places in the latest Global Club Ranking list as published by stats outlet FiveThirtyEight.

Hibs are currently third in the Scottish Premiership

The Easter Road side are positioned in 399th place out of 637 in the list featuring teams from England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and more.

Their rise in the rankings now charts them ahead of teams including LA Galaxy and St Pauli, while the Capital club is the highest-ranked Scottish representative outwith the Old Firm .

FiveThirtyEight uses a version of ESPN’s Soccer Power Index (SPI), initially devised to rank international teams. The SPI incorporates data from as early as 1888 and play-by-play stats from Opta.

The SPI ratings are FiveThirtyEight’s most accurate estimate of the overall strength of a team, and comprise an attacking rating based on the number of goals a team would be expected to score against an average opponent at a neutral venue, and a defensive rating that represents the number of goals a team would be expected to concede in the same scenario.

The two scores are then taken to produce the overall SPI rating which represents the percentage of available points (three points for a win; one for a draw, and none for a defeat) that the team would be expected to accrue if the same match was played over and over again.

The data allows FiveThirtyEight to project the result of a match played between the two teams in a host of situations.

For example, the data could be used to project results in matches between Hibs and St Johnstone at Easter Road, McDiarmid Park, and Hampden Park, as well as league games and cup fixtures.

Despite the 17-place rise both Livingston and Ross County enjoyed bigger bounces; the Lions moving up 20 places from 436 to 416, and the Staggies leaping from 602 to 584 thanks to their 4-1 win against Aberdeen.

The Dons meanwhile suffered the ignominy of experiencing the biggest fall, plummeting an astonishing 52 places to 419th from 367th after their heavy defeat in Dingwall.

The full table can be viewed here with a more in-depth explanation of how it works here.

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