Mexico back to top 10

The CONCACAF Gold Cup, numerous qualifying matches for confederation championships and the devaluation of the first phase of matches from the 2010 World Cup have led to considerable movement on this month’s world rankings, fifa.com reported yesterday.

Among the top ten teams, only leaders Spain and closest challengers the Netherlands have retained their positions.

Brazil, third last month, have lost points and places (5th, down 2), and the pecking order has also changed further down.

Mexico have gained 19 places thanks to their victory at the CONCACAF Gold Cup and have rocketed back into the top ten for the first time since July 2007.

Moving in the other direction are Uruguay (18th, down 11), who have dropped out of the top ten after being particularly badly affected by the devaluation of their successful group-stage matches at South Africa 2010.

However, the forthcoming Copa America will give all of the South American teams ample opportunity to bag more points.

Montenegro (16th, up 8) and Ivory Coast (14th, up 7) have both scaled new heights, reaching their best position since the introduction of the world rankings, while a number of African teams have also made heady progress, including Zimbabwe (87th, up 39), Liberia (125th, up 32), Comoros (164th, up 24), Sierra Leone (95th, up 23) and Central African Republic (91st, up 22).

In all, 131 international ‘A’ matches have been played since the previous edition of the rankings, consisting of 61 friendlies, 22 Gold Cup matches and 48 qualifiers for confederation championships. This takes the total number of games played this year to 386.

There was no change in Malta’s position as the national team remains in 161st place with 83 points, level with Nicaragua.

Top 10 in rankings
1. Spain 1,871; 2. Netherlands 1,661; 3. Germany 1,417; 4. England 1,146; 5. Brazil 1,130; 6. Italy 1,059; 7. Portugal 1,046; 8. Croatia 1,033; 9. Mexico 1,007; 10. Argentina 979.