Football has been at the centre of attention in recent weeks, which has had a major effect on July's FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. New European champions Spain (1st, up 3) have claimed top spot for the first time since the ranking was introduced in August 1993, and in doing so, become only the sixth team to take that honour (together with France, Germany, Brazil, Italy and Argentina).
Although Italy (2nd, up 1) had a mixed EURO 2008 campaign, their
performances were enough to retain a narrow lead over EURO 2008
runners-up Germany (3rd, up 2). Meanwhile, Brazil (4th, down 2) and
Argentina (6th, down 5) - who had held the top spot since October
2007 - have lost considerable ground due to recent results in the
race to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™.
The Netherlands (5th, up 5) have taken advantage of the
situation by manoeuvring themselves in between the two South
American teams, but impressive showings at EURO 2008 have also seen
Croatia (7th, up 8) and Portugal (9th, up 2) climb into the top
ten, a feat that has narrowly evaded both Russia (11th, up 13) and
Turkey (14th, up 6). Two teams - England (15th, down 6) and Greece
(18th, down 10) - have slipped down the ranking and are no longer
in the top ten.
There are also a number of major movers outside of Europe.
Teams to have made striking progress in the top 100 include Nigeria
(26th, up 8), Iran (37th, up 11) and Saudi Arabia (49th, up 5), as
well as a raft of teams who have climbed 20 or more places: Burkina
Faso (64th, up 47), Gabon (74th, up 20), Cuba (78th, up 26), Cape
Verde Islands (85th, up 24), Suriname (87th, up 58), Kenya (92nd,
up 23) and Korea DPR (94th, up 24). All of these teams have played
between two and five 2010 FIFA World Cup™ qualifiers in recent
weeks, winning at least once.
Both of July's biggest movers (Suriname and Burkina Faso)
won all of their recent qualifiers. Chad (127th, up 21), Suriname
and Rwanda (87th, up 19) are all in their highest-ever position in
the world ranking.
You can view this month's full Ranking table by clicking on the link to the right.
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