A busy few months across the world of women’s football has seen qualifying for the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019™ get underway across Europe and Asia. This has meant some re-entries, new entries and movement in the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking.

At the summit, Germany had knocked USA off the top spot for the first time since March 2015 in the previous ranking, but the Stars and Stripes are back on top after four impressive consecutive wins against Russia (twice), Sweden and Norway. Elsewhere in the top ten, Canada retook fourth place from England thanks to a friendly win over Sweden. The Blagult themselves dropped three places to ninth, their lowest ever ranking.

Eight teams re-entered the ranking, thanks to the recent glut of competitive games and friendly matches across the globe, with Tajikistan (108th) and Kosovo (109th) entering the table for the first time. With three countries (Jamaica, St Lucia and Malawi) dropping out due to inactivity, the total number of teams has risen by seven from March 2017, up to 122.

Of those 122, seven reached their best-ever ranking. New entries Tajikistan and Kosovo aside, Belgium (22nd, up one place) rose in part thanks to their 5-0 thrashing of Scotland in a UEFA Women’s EURO 2017 warm-up game and Chile (40th, up one place) progressed due partly to a 12-0 demolition of Peru. Other landmark placings saw Jordan (50th, up two places), Syria (114th, up one place) and Iraq (117th, up one place) achieve record highs.

The next FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking will be published on 1 September 2017.

Leader

USA (up from second)

Moves into top ten

None

Moves out of top ten

None

Matches played in total

116

Most matches played

Bahrain, Greece, Iraq, Jordan, Korea DPR, Philippines, Tajikistan, United Arab Emirates (five matches played)

 Biggest move by points

Biggest move by ranks

No country improved by more than two places

 Biggest drop by points

Biggest drop by ranks

Lithuania and Luxembourg (down ten places)

Newly ranked teams (re-entries unless otherwise stated)

Bolivia, Chile, Jordan, Kosovo (first ever entry), Iran, Iraq, Peru, Palestine, Syria, Tajikistan (first ever entry)

Teams no longer ranked due to prolonged inactivity

Jamaica, St Lucia and Malawi