The Cliff Index — who falls off next

Every 2026 squad, ranked by how hard its current core will be to replace by 2030. Composite = 0.5·z(weighted age) + 0.3·(last-dance minutes share) + 0.2·(1 − debutant share), z within 2026 — the exact formula, no tuning. Squad age is minutes-weighted (100% dob coverage among players with minutes); “last dance” = players aged ≥31 on 2030-06-01.

CSV ↓
#SquadCliff Wtd age z(age) Last-dance min Debutants
1🇮🇷 Iran+1.8132.1+2.8495%46%
2🇨🇻 Cape Verde+1.2831.1+2.1176%100%
3🇨🇴 Colombia+1.1130.4+1.5587%65%
4🇦🇷 Argentina+0.9629.9+1.1779%31%
5🇶🇦 Qatar+0.9430.0+1.2867%50%
6🇨🇭 Switzerland+0.9329.7+1.0983%31%
7🇧🇷 Brazil+0.8329.6+0.9778%42%
8🇪🇬 Egypt+0.7929.7+1.0385%88%
9🇧🇪 Belgium+0.7529.5+0.9162%46%
10🇭🇷 Croatia+0.7329.5+0.8856%42%
11🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Scotland+0.6829.5+0.9076%100%
12🇵🇦 Panama+0.6129.2+0.6480%73%
13🇨🇼 Curaçao+0.5629.2+0.7170%100%
14🇨🇩 DR Congo+0.5629.1+0.6185%100%
15🇺🇾 Uruguay+0.5629.0+0.5163%42%
16🇦🇹 Austria+0.5529.2+0.6576%100%
17🇸🇳 Senegal+0.5228.9+0.4468%50%
18🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia+0.5028.9+0.4661%58%
19🇭🇹 Haiti+0.4128.9+0.4562%100%
20🇰🇷 South Korea+0.3828.6+0.2061%54%
21🇯🇴 Jordan+0.3128.6+0.2166%100%
22🇩🇪 Germany+0.2928.5+0.1350%65%
23🇳🇿 New Zealand+0.2328.4+0.0857%92%
24🇵🇾 Paraguay+0.1828.4+0.0651%100%
25🇲🇽 Mexico+0.1728.0-0.2567%54%
26🇵🇹 Portugal+0.1528.1-0.1838%38%
27🇯🇵 Japan+0.1527.9-0.3167%50%
28🇹🇳 Tunisia+0.0927.9-0.3062%73%
29🇨🇿 Czech Republic+0.0928.1-0.1555%100%
30🇬🇭 Ghana+0.0527.8-0.4159%58%
31🇳🇱 Netherlands-0.0527.5-0.5954%62%
32🇩🇿 Algeria-0.0727.7-0.4749%88%
33🇫🇷 France-0.0827.4-0.7160%50%
34🇨🇦 Canada-0.1127.3-0.7554%50%
35🇳🇴 Norway-0.1427.4-0.6562%100%
36🇺🇿 Uzbekistan-0.1927.3-0.7766%100%
37🇺🇸 United States-0.2327.0-0.9650%50%
38🇪🇨 Ecuador-0.2427.2-0.8628%50%
39🇸🇪 Sweden-0.3027.0-0.9552%92%
40🇪🇸 Spain-0.3126.7-1.1759%54%
41🇿🇦 South Africa-0.3327.0-0.9548%100%
42🇹🇷 Turkey-0.3527.0-1.0052%100%
43🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina-0.3526.9-1.0452%92%
44🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England-0.3626.9-1.0842%69%
45🇮🇶 Iraq-0.3727.0-0.9941%100%
46🇲🇦 Morocco-0.5626.3-1.4939%65%
47🇦🇺 Australia-0.8125.7-1.9836%65%
48🇨🇮 Ivory Coast-0.8125.8-1.8740%100%

Formula also recorded on /methodology. Companion to the paper-vs-performance scatter and per-squad succession on /compare.