Uruguay, with their great run in the World Cup and a successful Copa America were named team of the year in the South American region, New Zealand that of the Oceania region and Spain from UEFA i.e. Japan was named as the team of the year in the Asian Confederation, Ivory Coast in the African and Mexico in the CONCACAF, which consists of teams from the Northern American region. Spain have been in good form but their recent matches have a record which reads Win, Draw, Loss, Win, Win. The most dramatic leap of all in December came from American Samoa, who jumped 18 places to 186 thanks to winning a World Cup qualifier for the first time. Uruguay were fourth, England fifth and Brazil sixth with Portugal, Croatia, Italy and Argentina completing the leading group.īosnia-Herzegovina (20), Panama (49) and Estonia (57) earned their highest placings since the rankings began. World and European champions Spain finished 2011 in pole position for the fourth time in a row, ahead of Netherlands and Germany in an unchanged top 10. Speed took over after Wales's final fixture in 2010 and under his management the team rose from 116th in the rankings to a place in the top 50, gaining more ranking points - 330 - in 2011 than any other nation. Northern Ireland 84.Spain celebrate after beating Netherlands in the final of the FIFA 2010 World Cup. Similar to their slide following the ‘06 World Cup, the red-white-and-blue would see their worst ranking ever during the July 2012 FIFA rankings (only two years after their heroics at the 2010 World Cup. Wales are in the same group as England, with John Toshack's side hosting Capello's team in Cardiff on 26 March, and the return game taking place at Wembley on 6 September.Įngland and Wales will also take on Switzerland, ranked 18th in the world, Bulgaria rated 43rd and 72nd-ranked Montenegro.ġ. Over the course of the next couple of years following the 2010 World Cup the USMNT would drop in the rankings. The Republic of Ireland have moved up five places to 36th.Īll four sides failed to qualify for the World Cup and their next major assignment is to try to qualify for Euro 2012, which will be staged in Poland and the Ukraine. The biggest movers in the rankings are New Zealand, who have climbed 24 places to 54th after going unbeaten in their three group games at the World Cup, a performance which was not, however, good enough to see them through to the last 16.Įlsewhere, Scotland have risen two places to 41st, while Northern Ireland have fallen three places to 59th and Wales are down seven places to 84th. South American side Uruguay, meanwhile, have risen to sixth, their highest position since the rankings were introduced, after finishing fourth in South Africa, where they were spurred on by striker Diego Forlan - who won the Golden Ball for player of the tournament. Their decline has also been reflected in the latest world rankings with 2006 champions Italy falling six places to 11th and France, the 1998 World Cup winners, slipping 12 places to 21st. On Tuesday, meanwhile, England's performance in South Africa was officially confirmed as their worst at a World Cup finals by Fifa, which rated them 13th out of the 32 competing teams.īut that was considerably better than Italy and France, who were 26th and 29th after failing to progress from the first-round group stage. Meanwhile, World Cup finalists the Netherlands have risen two places to second, with Brazil down to third. World Cup winners Spain have replaced Brazil as the top-ranked side. England have risen one place to seventh in Fifa's official world rankings, despite their poor showing at the recent World Cup in South Africa.įabio Capello's side were knocked out of the tournament in the last 16 after a 4-1 defeat by Germany, who have gone up two positions to fourth.
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