In the October edition of the FIFA World Ranking, the first three positions are
unchanged from last month. Germany have held on to the top spot despite a
difficult start to their EURO 2016 qualification campaign. Portugal (9th, up 2)
are making their first appearance in the top ten since July and Belgium (4th,
up 1) have leapfrogged the Netherlands (5th, down 1) to achieve their highest
ranking yet. Meanwhile former table-toppers Spain (10th, down 2) have slipped
down as far as tenth following their defeat against Slovakia (24th, up 16) and
Switzerland’s (12th, down 2) poor start in the EURO 2016 qualifiers has seen
them drop out of the top ten altogether.
Other continental qualification
matches in Africa and CONCACAF have led to big reshuffles further down the
ranking. No less than nine teams have climbed more than 20 ranks, while another
19 have moved up by between ten and 19 places. Three other teams have achieved
their highest-ever ranking along with Belgium this month: Algeria (15th, up 5),
Iceland (28th, up 6) and Antigua and Barbuda (70th, up 10).
There are seven new top-50 teams
– Slovenia (36th, up 17), Egypt (38th, up 23), Northern Ireland (43rd, up 28),
Poland (44th, up 26), Israel (45th, up 19), Trinidad and Tobago (49th, up 37)
and Hungary (50th, up 4) – but no longer any Asian teams in the top 50, with
Iran (51st, down 7) and Japan (52nd, down 4) having dropped to 51st and 52nd
place respectively. The breakdown of the top 50 per confederation now looks
like this: UEFA (31, plus 3), CAF (9, minus 2), CONMEBOL (6, minus 1), CONCACAF
(4, plus 1).
141 matches have been taken into
account for the October edition of the world ranking, exactly the same number
as last month. Of those matches, 49 were European qualifiers, 28 were African
qualifiers and ten were CONCACAF qualifiers, plus there were 54 friendlies. In
total, 667 matches have been taken into account over the course of the year so
far.
The next FIFA World Ranking will
be published on 27 November 2014.
Summary
Leader Germany (unchanged)
Moves into top ten Portugal
(9th, up 2)
Moves out of top ten
Switzerland (12th, down 2)
Matches played in total 141
Most matches played
Cambodia (6 matches)
Biggest move by points Togo
(up 314 points)
Biggest move by ranks Togo
(up 73 ranks)
Biggest drop by points
Armenia (minus 124 points)
Biggest drop by ranks
Azerbaijan (down 31 ranks)
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