Euro champions Greece gain five places

Greece registered the most eye-catching progress this month, climbing five places to 13th - the European champions' best position since the FIFA World Ranking was introduced in 1993.

The top five have remained unaltered from last month with Brazil leading the way ahead of France, Argentina, Czech Republic and Spain.

Mexico have joined the Netherlands in sixth place with England, Portugal and Italy completing the top ten group.

Ukraine (49th, up 8) have forced their way back into the top 50 alongside Switzerland (49th, up 2).

Lower down the ranks, Belarus (64th, up 4; their best ever position), Canada (85th, up 5) and Gabon (107th, up 5) have also made admirable gains.

Malta's slide in the FIFA ranking shows no signs of abating.

The 3-0 home defeat to Norway in a friendly match last week pushed the national team down one place to 136th, a position Malta share with Tajikistan who also have 353 points.

Faroe Islands occupy the 132nd slot in this month's FIFA ranking but Malta is not the worst ranked UEFA member in the list.

Andorra (139th), Liechtenstein (144th), Kazakhstan (149th), Luxembourg (154th) and San Marino (161st) all trail Malta in the FIFA ranking.

The noteworthy defeat that St Vincent and the Grenadines (135th, up 3) inflicted on Caribbean giants Trinidad & Tobago yielded them a valuable haul of points that is bettered only by Chad (160th, up 8).

All in all, 78 'A' internationals have been played this month, most of which (64) were friendlies, whereas the effects of qualifiers for confederation championships (2) and next year's World Cup (12) are barely felt.

The regional composition of the top 50 moves in favour of UEFA, which now represents half of the teams.

The other confederations are represented as follows: CAF - 8 teams; AFC - 7 (down 1); CONMEBOL - 6; CONCACAF - 4; OFC - 0.

The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on March 23.