Thursday 01 June 2017, 08:55

New Zealand climb ahead of Confed Cup, Poles into top ten

  • New Zealand biggest mover by ranking (95th, plus 17 places)

  • Top three unchanged: Brazil, Argentina and Germany

  • Poland into top ten for first time

Ahead of a busy month in senior international football, with FIFA World Cup™ qualifying and the FIFA Confederations Cup set to take centre stage in June, there has been a small amount of notable movement in the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking.

New Zealand, who will face hosts Russia in the opener of the Confederations Cup in Saint Petersburg on 17 June, are the biggest movers by rank (95th, plus 17 places), while there were marginal gains for other Russia 2017 participants Australia (48th, plus two places) and Cameroon (32nd, up one place).

With just ten international friendlies taking place since the May edition, there is little surprise that most of the top ten remain unchanged, with Brazil, Argentina and another Confederations Cup contender Germany retaining their place as the top three. However, Poland (tenth, up one place) have managed to gatecrash the top ten for the first time in the Ranking’s history, with the side currently sitting top of Group E in the UEFA section of World Cup qualifying joining Spain on 1198 ranking points, meaning they share tenth spot.

Another pair of sides who share a space in the Ranking are United Kingdom neighbours Wales (13th) and England (13th, up one place) thanks to the Three Lions’ slight rise.

Along with Poland, three other sides who have impressed of late in their respective confederations in World Cup qualifying have reached their all-time high in the June edition, with Peru (15th, up two spots), Syria (77th, up three places) and Papua New Guinea (153rd, up three places), climbing to their loftiest position since the Ranking began almost a quarter-of-a-century ago.

The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 6 July 2017.

**

Leader

Brazil (unchanged)

Moves into top 10

Poland (10, plus 1)

Moves out of top 10

none

Matches played in total

10

Most matches played

Benin (3 games)

Biggest move by points

Montenegro (plus 87 points)

Biggest move by ranks

New Zealand (plus 17 ranks)

Biggest drop by points

Burkina Faso (minus 60 points)

Biggest drop by ranks

Mauritania (minus 13 ranks)

Newly ranked teams

none

Teams that are no longer ranked

none

Inactive teams, not ranked

none