Brazil knock Spain off top spot in rankings

After winning the Confederations Cup in South Africa, Brazil went on to reclaim the top spot in the FIFA world rankings to relegate European champions Spain to second place.

The South Americans last topped the rankings in August 2007, a position they have held six times in the history of the rankings.

The Netherlands (3rd, down 1), Italy (4th, unchanged) and Germany (5th, down 2), occupy the next three places but are some distance behind the leading duo. Russia (6th, up 3) have overtaken England (7th, down 1) and Argentina (8th, down 1), achieving their best position since August 1997 in the process, fifa.com said.

Of the other countries that took part in the Confederations Cup, beaten finalists United States (12th, up 2), Egypt (38th, up 2) and hosts South Africa (70th, up 2) have also progressed up the rankings.

Egypt's improved position despite their early exit from the tournament is the result of their 1-0 victory over world champions Italy, which scored very highly in terms of ranking points.

Meanwhile, disappointing performances in South Africa by Iraq (94th, down 17) and New Zealand (100th, down 18) caused them to lose ground.

119 matches

In the last four weeks, a total of 119 international matches were played: 16 Confederations Cup matches, 67 World Cup qualifiers and 36 friendlies.

This brings the total matches played this year to 406.

The many matches played and the devaluation of matches at Euro 2008 are the main reasons for the many changes in positions in this month's ranking list.

Despite a 4-0 defeat to Sweden in a World Cup qualifier last month, Malta are still classified 150th in the world, the same positon as last month.

A host of UEFA minnows, such as Luxembourg, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, are ranked above Malta but Liechtenstein and the Faroe Islands trail the Maltese national team in the classification.

Top 20 nations

1. Brazil; 2. Spain; 3. Netherlands; 4. Italy; 5. Germany; 6. Russia; 7. England; 8. Argentina; 9. France; 10. Croatia; 11. Greece; 12. US; 13. Switzerland; 14. Serbia; 15. Denmark; 16. Australia; 17. Portugal; 18. Ivory Coast; 19. Ukraine; 20. Uruguay.