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Wednesday, June 06, 2012

FOOTBALL : Uruguay 2nd, England move to 6th in new Fifa world rankings

Uruguay are the second best football side in the world, while England are sixth best international team, according to Fifa's latest world rankings.

FIFA's rankings which are notorious for being heavily over-balanced for world and confederation matches, and fairly useless for comparing between confederations, are still useful within confederations and have been released ahead of the Euro2012 competition.

COMNEBOL STANDINGS :
Uruguay's 2nd position is an all-time high for the South American side, and is a direct result of winning the 2011 Copa America and being the highest placed South American finisher at the 2010 World Cup, Uruguay are ahead of fifth-placed Brazil and seventh-placed Argentina.

Whether that really makes Uruguay the second best football side in the world is doubtful, but it does underline their new strength within the COMNEBOL confederation at present.

South America have two other teams in the top 20 with Chile (11th) and Colombia (20th) also included after good recent results.

UEFA STANDINGS :
In the UEFA Confederation, Spain have retained top spot, while Germany and the Netherlands are third and fourth respectively with England 6th overall - making them the 4th best European side. Croatia, Denmark and Portugal are the other European sides who occupy the top 10.

Italy (12th), Russia (13th) and France (14th) sit outside the top 10 with Greece (15th), Sweden (17th) and the Republic of Ireland (18th) being the other Euro2012 contenders in the top 20..

Poland, despite moving up three places, are the lowest-ranked team in Euro 2012 in 62nd, while fellow host nation Ukraine are 52nd.

OTHER CONFEDERATION STANDINGS :
The Ivory Cost (16th) are the only African side to make the top 20, while Mexico (19th) fly the flag for the CONCACAF confederation.

There are no sides from Asia in the top twenty, with Japan (23rd) and Australia (24th), while Oceania has only New Zealand (100th) ranked in the top 100 teams.

Fifa world rankings - top 20

1. Spain
2. Uruguay
3. Germany
4. Netherlands
5. Brazil
6. England
7. Argentina
8. Croatia
9. Denmark
10. Portugal
11. Chile
12. Italy
13. Russia
14. France
15. Greece
16. Ivory Coast
17. Sweden
18. Republic of Ireland
19. Mexico
20. Colombia

Others:
52. Ukraine 62. Poland

The Fifa world rankings are compiled every month, with ranking points accumulated according to results, the importance of the matches played and the strength of opposing teams.

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