With less than a month to go until the start of the World Cup, the latest FIFA ranking remain virtually unchanged. Brazil, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands maintained their stranglehold over the top three places.

Mexico are now fourth (up 2) on the strength of a recent win, taking advantage of the tight squeeze behind the leading trio.

Inside the top 50, Slovakia (41st) and World Cup qualifiers Australia (42nd), Serbia (44th) and Ghana (48th) have all jumped two places.

Lower down the rankings, there are very few big movers of note.

Scotland have leapt up three slots (59th, up 3) on the back of a 5-1 victory over Bulgaria whereas Chile have climbed thanks to two recent wins against New Zealand (64th, up 3).

Only five teams have clambered up more than five places in the past few weeks: the UAE (71st, up 7), Lithuania (93rd, up 6), Mozambique (127th, up 6), Lesotho (141st, up 6) and Equatorial Guinea (154th, up 7), the latter enjoying their best ranking ever.

Malta lost two places in the latest FIFA rankings and is now 125th with 359 points.

Fellow minnows Liechtenstein are ahead of Malta for the first time in several months. They are 123rd with 360 points.

The other UEFA members trailing Malta in the list are Andorra (129th, down one), Kazakhstan (135th, up one), Faroe Islands (139, down two), Luxembourg (152nd) and San Marino (161st, down one).

New calculations

The new FIFA rankings will now be published three days after the World Cup final, based on a simplified method of calculation.

Next month promises to be a very different picture, given that the evaluation period will be cut from eight to four years and that a plethora of points are lying in wait from the jamboree of 64 World Cup matches.

The principles of calculation for the modified rankings will be announced during the World Cup final week in Berlin.