FIFA Ranking: October 2008 final preview

Yesterday was Thursday, the deadline for matches to be included in the October 2008 FIFA Ranking calculations. FIFA may include more matches though - but no later than Sunday.

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.

However, since many matches were played on October 8th in previous years, do take it with a fair bit of salt.

Only 4 matches played since the last FIFA Ranking preview.

Germany miss out on second place after failing to get the win in Helsinki.

Six nations will improve their best ever ranking:

Israel (16th, their previous best ranking was 19th achieved in September 2008)
Lithuania (37th - 42nd in August 1997)
Macedonia (46th - 49th in March 2007)
Congo (57th - 79th in April 2007)
Montenegro (117th - 136th in September 2008)
Chad (119th - 127th in July 2008).

Lebanon will return to their worst ever ranking - 150th, first achieved in July 2008.

Seven countries will have their worst ever ranking:

Congo DR (87th - 85th in April 2008)
United Arab Emirates (112th - 111th in October 2003)
Jamaica (116th - 108th in August 2008)
Kuwait (124th - 121st in November 2007)
Estonia (137th - 135th in February 1996)
Malta (146th - 144th in September 2006)
Liberia (153th - 146th in November 2007).

New Zealand will be the highest climbers - 57 places from 111th to 54th, followed by Congo (43 places from 100th to 57th) and Luxembourg (30 places from 152nd to 122nd). The worst movers will be Equatorial Guinea (down 33 places from 87th to 120th), New Caledonia (down 27 from 95th to 122nd) and Suriname (down 23 from 84th to 107th).

Best movers in the Top 50:

17 - Lithuania
10 - Ecuador, Macedonia and Honduras
7 - Ukraine
6 - Denmark
5 - USA and Australia

Worst movers in the Top 50:

-16 - Moldova
-12 - Hungary
-10 - Scotland
-7 - Serbia and Morocco
-6 - Côte d'Ivoire and Mali

October 2008 rank - Team - October 2008 points - +/- Ranking - +/- Points

1	Spain	1643	0	78
2	Italy	1365	0	26
3	Germany	1336	0	7
4	Brazil	1280	2	28
5	Netherlands	1258	-1	-37
6	Croatia	1223	-1	-43
7	Argentina	1200	0	-30
8	Czech Republic	1111	0	-23
9	Russia	1076	3	63
10	Portugal	1075	-1	-45
11	France	1035	0	16
12	Cameroon	1027	2	28
13	Turkey	1023	-3	-10
14	England	982	1	-9
15	Bulgaria	968	1	-8
16	Israel	957	3	83
17	Greece	945	1	24
18	Romania	927	-5	-80
19	Ukraine	892	7	93
20	Uruguay	887	2	70
21	Egypt	864	0	23
22	Paraguay	863	3	62
23	USA	861	5	73
24	Ghana	844	-4	-20
25	Mexico	841	-1	34
26	Scotland	820	-10	-156
27	Nigeria	818	0	27
28	Sweden	791	3	18
29	Côte d'Ivoire	776	-6	-38
30	Denmark	764	6	68
31	Poland	763	-1	-16
32	Japan	746	3	39
33	Colombia	743	-4	-42
34	Australia	737	5	82
35	Northern Ireland	722	-3	-39
36	Chile	715	4	61
37	Lithuania	706	17	161
38	Republic of Ireland	702	0	40
39	Norway	681	-5	-52
40	Serbia	671	-7	-75
41	Guinea	669	0	19
42	Ecuador	661	10	105
43	Finland	645	-1	-4
44	Morocco	643	-7	-28
45	Switzerland	639	-2	-5
46	FYR Macedonia	636	10	117
47	Tunisia	624	-3	-19
48	Iran	617	-2	3
49	Senegal	615	-4	-8
50	Honduras	602	10	100
51	Saudi Arabia	591	-3	18
52	Belgium	589	3	59
53	Mali	587	-6	-17
54	New Zealand	583	57	267
55	Korea Republic	551	-4	-7
56	Algeria	542	20	119
57	Congo	536	43	181
58	Peru	532	15	94
59	Belarus	524	-2	6
60	Slovakia	520	7	46
60	Wales	520	-7	-29
62	Hungary	507	-12	-54
63	Burkina Faso	502	1	24
64	Moldova	501	-16	-72
65	Latvia	499	-2	20
66	Venezuela	484	-5	-12
67	Angola	481	-9	-32
67	Gabon	481	-5	-4
69	Costa Rica	475	4	37
70	Zambia	474	-1	18
71	Bahrain	466	-5	-9
72	Uzbekistan	461	-13	-44
73	Slovenia	459	6	44
74	Bolivia	455	-3	12
75	Bosnia-Herzegovina	448	0	13
76	Iraq	445	-4	6
77	Kenya	433	9	38
77	Libya	433	13	47
77	Qatar	433	4	21
80	Cyprus	431	-15	-45
81	Benin	427	23	78
82	Austria	420	19	66
83	Albania	418	19	66
84	Canada	414	-3	2
85	South Africa	411	-15	-36
86	Rwanda	410	-1	10
87	Congo DR	409	-19	-52
88	Trinidad and Tobago	405	-8	-9
89	Guatemala	395	10	39
90	Togo	391	-12	-29
91	Gambia	388	-1	2
92	Zimbabwe	385	-9	-21
93	Panama	383	3	18
94	Uganda	377	-7	-15
95	Oman	374	-3	-9
96	Georgia	372	-19	-49
97	China PR	370	-3	-5
98	Cuba	366	-6	-17
99	Mozambique	355	4	4
100	Armenia	351	-2	-7
101	Syria	350	-4	-14
102	Ethiopia	346	6	22
103	Iceland	345	4	13
104	Cape Verde Islands	340	-15	-51
104	Haiti	340	13	50
106	Sudan	327	0	-6
107	Korea DPR	311	9	15
107	Suriname	311	-23	-94
109	Malawi	309	1	-8
110	Tanzania	308	7	18
110	Thailand	308	4	3
112	United Arab Emirates	307	-3	-16
113	Barbados	300	21	98
114	Jordan	298	-1	-8
115	Botswana	296	0	-3
116	Jamaica	295	-11	-44
117	Montenegro	294	19	96
118	Guyana	290	-6	-25
119	Chad	288	8	52
120	El Salvador	285	11	65
120	Equatorial Guinea	285	-33	-107
122	New Caledonia	275	-27	-93
123	Luxembourg	273	29	128
124	Kuwait	271	-5	-14
125	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	262	22	89
126	Namibia	259	-5	2
127	Kyrgyzstan	253	-3	0
128	Burundi	252	-2	15
129	Bermuda	251	-4	6
129	Hong Kong	251	-7	-5
131	Kazakhstan	247	-11	-23
132	Singapore	234	-3	5
133	Sierra Leone	233	12	52
134	Antigua and Barbuda	231	-12	-25
135	Liechtenstein	227	-5	2
136	Madagascar	221	5	31
137	Estonia	218	-9	-16
138	Fiji	217	5	32
139	Indonesia	213	-7	3
140	Eritrea	199	-5	0
141	Azerbaijan	192	-3	-1
141	Grenada	192	-2	0
141	Swaziland	192	0	2
144	Puerto Rico	180	2	0
145	Mauritania	178	-5	-13
146	Malta	175	-13	-34
146	Vanuatu	175	4	4
148	India	173	3	7
148	Niger	173	23	95
150	Lebanon	170	-3	-3
151	Netherlands Antilles	169	-4	-4
152	Yemen	167	-16	-31
153	Liberia	159	-9	-24
154	Maldives	156	1	23
155	Tajikistan	155	-1	19
156	St. Kitts and Nevis	122	3	9
157	Myanmar	120	3	8
158	Turkmenistan	114	0	0
159	Lesotho	113	-3	-6
160	Malaysia	109	1	1
161	St. Lucia	108	0	0
162	Cayman Islands	101	22	65
163	Solomon Islands	100	-10	-40
164	Seychelles	97	-7	-20
165	Vietnam	90	1	-2
166	Philippines	89	1	0
167	Pakistan	87	1	-1
168	Sri Lanka	86	-4	-9
169	Turks and Caicos Islands	83	-6	-13
170	Bahamas	81	-5	-13
171	Mauritius	74	-2	-8
172	Guinea-Bissau	72	0	0
173	Belize	71	0	0
173	Chinese Taipei	71	2	3
175	British Virgin Islands	68	-5	-11
175	Nepal	68	2	4
177	Dominican Republic	66	-1	0
178	Samoa	64	-1	0
179	Bangladesh	56	0	-6
180	Palestine	50	-7	-21
181	Nicaragua	45	-1	0
182	Afghanistan	43	0	3
182	Cambodia	43	-1	0
184	Andorra	37	2	4
185	Brunei Darussalam	36	-1	0
186	Djibouti	35	-4	-5
187	Bhutan	32	0	0
187	Tahiti	32	0	0
187	Tonga	32	0	0
190	Laos	28	0	1
191	Dominica	25	0	0
192	Mongolia	24	0	0
193	Aruba	22	0	0
194	US Virgin Islands	17	0	0
195	Comoros	13	0	0
196	Macau	11	0	0
197	Somalia	8	0	0
198	Faroe Islands	7	0	0
199	Central African Republic	6	0	0
200	American Samoa	0	0	0
200	Anguilla	0	0	0
200	Cook Islands	0	0	0
200	Guam	0	0	0
200	Montserrat	0	0	0
200	Papua New Guinea	0	0	0
200	San Marino	0	0	0
200	Timor-Leste	0	0	0

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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.