OK, I think this ranking is rubbish. That’s the first thing I want to make perfectly clear.
BUT. Here’s where I’ve got a mixed feeling about it.
For years, we’ve been in the Top 3 of that list. WC Qualy and probably Copa America and Confederations Cup helped us scored points in that questionable rank.
Call it inaccurate, biased or commercial, it was the FIFA Ranking who allowed us to be one of the seeded teams in the last World Cup and based on the way FIFA select the head of each group after every 4 years I think we should give this ranking the importance FIFA want us to give it.
Because they calculate the final position of every team in the last 3 World Cups plus the FIFA Ranking points to determine if a team is seeded or not and if it wasn’t for our position in that table we would have been unseeded. Despite that priviledge we had, we still ended up playing two European teams (Holland + Serbia & Montenegro) and the strongest of the African representatives (Ivory Coast) but in order to avoid another unpleasant surprise in the draw for South Africa 2010 we need to keep our status high and stay as close as the Top 3 as we possibly can.
Now we’ve slipped to the 4th position in a rank still owned by Brazil who are followed by World Champions Italy and runners-up France.
Here are the Top 10 nations in the latest FIFA Rankings:
1. Brazil 1560
2. Italy 1540
3. France 1483
4. Argentina 1446
5. England 1370
6. Germany 1339
7. Netherlands 1313
8. Czech Republic 1253
9. Portugal 1224
10. Spain 1198
