England's miserable week took another turn for the worse today with the publication of the FIFA world rankings which left them outside a probable World Cup qualifying draw top seeding.
Following their European Championship qualifying exit after defeat at home to Croatia on Wednesday, England are now ranked as Europe's 10th best side and will therefore almost certainly miss out on a top seeding for Sunday's 2010 World Cup draw.
European champions Greece have climbed above England and are expected to join Italy, Spain, Germany, the Czech Republic,France, Portugal, the Netherlands and Croatia in Sunday's pot of top seeds. England will probably find themselves in the second pot alongside Romania, Scotland, Turkey, Bulgaria, Russia, Poland,Sweden and Israel.
FIFA meet to ratify the seedings system in Durban tomorrow but a spokesman in Zurich told Reuters that it was "99 percent certain" the latest rankings would be used to determine them.
World Cup holders Italy remain third in the overall rankings, behind leaders Argentina and second-placed Brazil. The latest changes in the rankings can only affect the European section of Sunday's World Cup draw since the other continental federations are using earlier rankings or, in South America's case, a league format. England, who are now 12th in the world, held a 103-point lead over the Greeks in last month's rankings. They were overtaken by the narrowest of margins on Friday after Greece made a net gain of 80 points thanks largely to wins in their last two Euro 2008 qualifiers. England, whose only win this month was a 1-0 friendly triumph over 91st world-ranked Austria, dropped a total of 24points.
FIFA world rankings (previous rankings in brackets):
1. (1) Argentina
2. (2) Brazil
3. (3) Italy
4. (6) Spain
5. (5) Germany
6. (9) Czech Republic
7. (4) France
8. (8) Portugal
9. (7) Netherlands
10. (10) Croatia
11. (14) Greece
12. (11) England
13. (12) Romania
14. (13) Scotland
15. (15) Mexico
16. (28) Turkey
17. (25) Colombia
18. (34) Bulgaria
19. (18) USA
20. (19) Nigeria