FIFA Ranking: Probable top 50 in September 2008

Point totals for teams from the top 20 of the October 2007 ranking should be 100% correct. For the others, there's the issue of historical rankings published before July 2006.

There are only 13 matches left to play this month (or more - I'm not sure about the Independence Cup taking place in Indonesia), so the top 50 is pretty much set in stone with the exceptions of Iran and Saudi Arabia. Iran could lose another spot with a bad result against Azerbaijan (of course, if they don't cancel that friendly too), while Saudi Arabia could lose up to three places if they don't win against Qatar.

Italy reclaim second place from Germany, Turkey return to the top 10 at the expense of Russia, but are still 5 places shy of their best ever ranking - 5th in June 2004.

Mexico managed to overtake the USA, but Scotland failed to get the win they needed in order to overtake England.

Despite losing 2 - 0 against Finland, Israel will go up one place to 19 - their best ever ranking. Same goes for New Caledonia (95th - previous best ranking was 114th), Chad (126th - 127th in July 2008), Montenegro (135th - 142nd in June 2008) and Bhutan (186th - 187th in December 2003).

Sweden will match their worst ever ranking, first achieved in August 1998 - 31st. Laos return to their worst ever ranking - 190th in June 2008.

Three countries will have their worst ever ranking: Tahiti (186th - 181st in June 2007), Andorra (189th - 188th in May 1997) and Faroe Islands (198th - 196th in August 2008).

New Caledonia and Kyrgyzstan will be the best climbers - 21 places, followed by Algeria (14), then Gabon and Guyana - both with 12.

The worst movers will be Solomon Islands, going down 24 places, then Samoa (-22) and Korea DPR (-21).

1	Spain	1572	0	15
2	Italy	1339	1	19
3	Germany	1329	-1	-14
4	Netherlands	1305	0	6
5	Croatia	1266	0	-16
6	Brazil	1252	0	10
7	Argentina	1230	0	11
8	Czech Republic	1134	0	-12
9	Portugal	1120	0	-2
10	Turkey	1033	3	23
11	France	1019	1	7
12	Russia	1013	-2	-10
13	Romania	1007	-2	-14
14	Cameroon	1001	1	7
15	England	990	-1	-13
16	Scotland	977	0	-11
17	Bulgaria	976	0	46
18	Greece	920	0	24
19	Israel	877	1	1
20	Ghana	866	-1	-26
21	Egypt	841	0	-10
22	Uruguay	817	2	4
23	Côte d'Ivoire	813	2	11
24	Mexico	807	8	57
25	Paraguay	802	-3	-18
26	Ukraine	801	2	15
27	Nigeria	791	0	3
28	USA	788	3	21
29	Colombia	786	-6	-30
30	Poland	779	-1	1
31	Sweden	772	-5	-29
32	Northern Ireland	761	0	11
33	Serbia	743	1	-6
34	Norway	732	-5	-46
35	Japan	701	0	-26
36	Denmark	696	0	-26
37	Morocco	671	0	-19
38	Republic of Ireland	662	3	-4
39	Chile	655	0	-25
39	Australia	655	-1	-30
41	Guinea	650	-1	-20
41	Finland	650	1	-3
43	Tunisia	644	4	15
43	Switzerland	644	1	-1
45	Senegal	625	-2	-24
46	Iran	624	-1	-19
47	Mali	610	1	-14
48	Moldova	575	1	-47
49	Saudi Arabia	569	3	-6
50	Hungary	562	0	-29

I will post an update on September 1st - to include the remaining matches.

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About me:

Christian, husband, father x 3, programmer, Romanian. Started the blog in March 2007. Quit in April 2018. You can find me on LinkedIn.