Spain top rankings for fourth year running

The last edition of the FIFA world rankings for this year, issued yesterday, brought very few changes with it.

World and European champions Spain remain unchallenged at the top of the table, followed by the Netherlands, Germany and Uruguay, all engaged in a tight head-to-head battle for second place.

As the top team at year-end, Spain are the Team of the Year for the fourth year in a row.

The title of Best Mover of the Year is claimed by Wales (48th, up 2) who, with 330 points, won the most points in 2011.

The Welshmen find themselves back in the top 50 thanks to their outstanding performances in the second half of the year, with wins over Montenegro, Switzerland and Bulgaria in the Euro 2012 qualifiers.

The Maltese national team is classified at no.155, three positions better than the previous rankings and nine places higher in com-parison with December 2010.

The only two UEFA members in the world rankings behind Malta are Andorra and San Marino, both tied at no.204.

A look at the continental composition of the top 50 in December 2010 reveals various changes:

South America (9 teams, up 3), CONCACAF (3, up 1) and Asia (4, up 1) have grown stronger, while Africa (7, down 3) and Europe (27, down 2) have fewer teams in the top 50 than they had a year ago.

The top-ranked teams from each of the confederations are Spain (1st), Uruguay (4th), Ivory Coast (16th), Japan (19th), Mexico (21st) and New Zealand (119th).

In total, 1,046 matches were taken into account over the course of the year.

Top 15 nations
1. Spain; 2. Netherlands; 3. Germany; 4. Uruguay; 5. England; 6. Brazil; 7. Portugal; 8. Croatia; 9. Italy; 10. Argentina; 11. Denmark; 12. Russia; 13. Chile; 14. Greece; 15. France.