World champions Germany on top

Four-time world champions Germany are reaping the rewards of their triumph at the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ in this edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. The World Cup Final against Argentina was also a duel for the leading position in the world ranking – with Joachim Low’s team coming out on top on both counts.

Germany lead the table for the first time in around 20 years, followed by Argentina and the Netherlands.

The Oranje’s third-place finish at the World Cup has propelled them 12 positions up the table and back into the top ten. All of the teams that exited the World Cup in the quarter-finals have climbed up the ranking: Colombia (fourth, up four), Belgium (fifth, up six), France (tenth, up seven) and Costa Rica (16th, up 12 – the Ticos’ highest-ever ranking).

If the winners have gained, the less successful teams are left counting the cost of failure in their ranking positions. Former champions Spain have fallen from the top spot to eighth place, while Portugal (11th, down seven), Italy (14th, down five) and England (20th, down ten) have all dropped out of the top ten following their first-round exits. World Cup hosts Brazil, meanwhile, have dropped four places to seventh position.

The results of 111 international “A” matches have been taken into account for the current edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, of which 64 were played at the World Cup in Brazil, 46 were friendlies and one was a CONCACAF continental qualifier. In this qualifier for the CONCACAF Gold Cup 2015, Turks and Caicos Islands (181st, up 26) celebrated their first victory in over six years against the British Virgin Islands, lifting them off the bottom of the table. The total number of international “A” matches taken into account so far this year is now 362.

M.D