Malta climbed nine places in the FIFA rankings on the back of their 1-1 draw away to Bulgaria. Photo: Paul Zammit Cutajar/MFAMalta climbed nine places in the FIFA rankings on the back of their 1-1 draw away to Bulgaria. Photo: Paul Zammit Cutajar/MFA

The November edition of the FIFA world rankings reveals very little change in the top 10, with the leading seven positions unaltered from last month and world champions Germany still out in front ahead of Argentina and Colombia.

France, however, are now in joint seventh place together with Portugal (7th, up 2).

In the top 20, England (13th, up 7), Romania (15th, up 6) and Czech Republic (17th, up 5) have all made good progress.

Guinea (38th, up 17) have climbed into the top 50 on the back of two victories in CAF Africa Cup of Nations 2015 qualifiers, as have Mali (49th, up 9).

As a result, the regional composition of the top 50 has shifted slightly in favour of Africa (10 teams, up 1).

With the exception of CONCACAF (3 teams in the top 50, down 1), there are no other changes to the number of top 50 teams of the other confederations (UEFA: 31; CONMEBOL: 6; AFC: 0; OFC: 0).

Further down the rankings, the Faroe Islands (105th, up 82) have made considerable progress thanks to their surprise victory over Greece (25th, down 7) in the Euro 2016 qualifiers.

The other teams to have climbed more than 20 places are Jamaica (71st, up 42), Cuba (79th, up 33), San Marino (180th, up 28), Haiti (68th, up 25), Liechtenstein (130th, up 25), and Thailand (144th, up 21).

For San Marino, their draw with Estonia – also in the Euro 2016 qualifiers – sees them climb off the bottom of the table for the first time in six-and-a-half years.

Malta have also reaped the benefits of their 1-1 draw away to Bulgaria in a Euro 2016 qualifier earlier this month.

Our national team have gained nine places in this month’s rankings, moving up to 148th thanks to their resilient showing in Sofia which also rewarded them with the first point in Group H thanks to Clayton Failla’s equaliser from the penalty spot early in the second half.

A total of 150 new ‘A’ international matches have been taken into account for this month’s edition of the FIFA world rankings, bringing the total number of matches evaluated in 2014 to 817.

Sixty-one of these matches were part of continental qualifiers in Europe, Africa and the CONCACAF region, with the other 89 being friendly matches.

Top 10

1. Germany - 1,725 points
2. Argentina - 1,538
3. Colombia - 1,450
4. Belgium - 1,417
5. Netherlands - 1,374
6. Brazil - 1,316
7. Portugal, France - 1,160
9. Spain - 1,142
10. Uruguay - 1,135

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