The latest edition of the FIFA World Ranking is once again dominated by Spain, who continue to hold on to top spot with a comfortable cushion of more than 200 points. Their nearest challengers are once again world champions Italy (2nd, up 1), who have swapped places with Germany (3rd, down 1), although the Netherlands (4th, no change) are also within touching distance of the Italians and the Germans.
The line-up at the top could change dramatically over the next few weeks, however, with the European World Cup qualifiers due to take centre stage now that more than 300 of the 850-plus qualifiers have already been played in the other confederations. Europe's total of 268 matches will account for more than 30 per cent of the games in the entire preliminary competition for 2010.
Positions four to nine remain unchanged, although Turkey (10th, up 3) have climbed back into the top ten. After an absence of just one month, Saudi Arabia (48th, up 4) are back in the top 50. The major movers in the upper reaches, however, are Mexico (24th), whose climb of eight places sees them overtake the USA (28th, up 3) as the highest CONCACAF team.
Further down, a number of teams have made considerable progress since last month, including Gabon (62nd, up 12), Algeria (76th, up 14), Trinidad and Tobago (80th, up 12) and New Caledonia (95th, up 21), the latter having benefited from a devaluation of past results to once again replace New Zealand (111th, no change) as the highest Oceanian representatives, just as they did exactly one year ago.
Wed Sep 17, 2008 1:54 am