FIFA Ranking: December 2008 final preview

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.

Included: matches played up to and including December 11th. This is the deadline for matches, but FIFA may include two more matches: Serbia - Poland (friendly) and Jamaica - Grenada (continental qualifier). See the changes in the FIFA ranking if these matches would be included.

Netherlands up to 3rd, replacing Italy.
England continue to rise - up to 8th.
Turkey return to the top 10.
Czechia, France and Portugal - tied for 11th place.

The best movers: Fiji - 31 places, followed by Grenada (21), Kenya (20) and Jamaica (17).

On the other end, New Zealand goes down 24 places, Belarus, Barbados and Eritrea 22, Moldova 21.

Best movers in the top 50

11 - Korea Republic
9 - Australia
8 - Hungary
6 - Honduras
5 - Ukraine and Egypt
4 - Chile and Mali

Worst movers in the top 50

-11 - Bulgaria
-10 - Northern Ireland and Lithuania
-8 - Finland
-7 - Colombia
-6 - FYR Macedonia
-5 - Ecuador

Six countries will improve their best ever ranking:

Egypt (16th - 17th in May 1998)
Australia (28th - 31st in July 1997)
Kenya (65th - 70th in February 2004)
Rwanda (78th - 83rd in August 2008)
Montenegro (112th - 115th in November 2008)
Timor-Leste (197th - 198th in November 2006)

Chad will return to their best ever ranking - 119th, first achieved in October 2008.

Six countries will have their worst ever ranking:

Sweden (32nd - 31st in August 1998)
Denmark (37th - 26th in July 2008)
Colombia (47th - 41st in November 2003)
Norway (59th - 54th in November 2008)
Tahiti (188th - 187th in September 2008)
Somalia (200th - 199th in March 2000)

Two countries have set themselves FIFA ranking targets: Canada (Top 40) and Malaysia (130th). Both are far from those targets, Canada falling 9 places to 81st and Malaysia falling 4 places to 155th.

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

1	Spain	1662	0	5
2	Germany	1381	0	-32
3	Netherlands	1338	1	32
4	Italy	1326	-1	-30
5	Brazil	1246	0	-40
6	Argentina	1180	0	-1
7	Croatia	1142	0	-16
8	England	1115	2	57
9	Russia	1103	-1	24
10	Turkey	1016	3	-16
11	Czech Republic	1007	-2	-55
11	France	1007	1	-28
11	Portugal	1007	-1	-51
14	Cameroon	988	0	-25
15	Ukraine	907	5	24
16	Egypt	894	5	15
17	Paraguay	889	0	-45
18	Israel	878	-3	-126
19	Nigeria	876	3	24
20	Greece	872	-2	-35
21	Romania	858	-2	-34
22	USA	853	2	19
23	Uruguay	828	0	-10
24	Switzerland	823	3	24
25	Ghana	817	1	12
26	Mexico	811	-1	-16
27	Bulgaria	781	-11	-170
28	Australia	776	9	37
29	Côte d'Ivoire	771	-1	-9
30	Serbia	764	0	-11
31	Chile	758	4	5
32	Sweden	750	-3	-26
33	Scotland	739	0	-22
34	Poland	735	-2	-30
35	Japan	731	3	9
36	Ecuador	729	-5	-42
37	Denmark	717	-3	-40
38	Republic of Ireland	711	-2	-40
39	Guinea	702	0	11
40	Honduras	690	6	67
41	Morocco	650	2	4
42	Korea Republic	630	11	41
43	Iran	627	1	-15
44	Slovakia	620	1	-7
45	Mali	616	4	13
46	Tunisia	606	1	-7
47	Colombia	601	-7	-85
48	Hungary	600	8	49
49	Saudi Arabia	598	3	8
50	Senegal	586	1	-7
51	Lithuania	583	-10	-94
52	Northern Ireland	580	-10	-90
53	Costa Rica	578	4	36
54	Belgium	546	1	-25
55	FYR Macedonia	534	-6	-69
56	Finland	533	-8	-78
57	Slovenia	531	1	-10
58	Bolivia	528	13	65
59	Norway	526	-5	-46
60	Wales	523	2	5
61	Bosnia-Herzegovina	517	6	25
62	Burkina Faso	512	-1	-9
62	Gabon	512	-3	-23
64	Algeria	501	-1	-13
65	Kenya	489	20	76
66	Jamaica	487	17	66
67	Venezuela	486	-1	-11
68	Congo	484	1	9
69	Latvia	483	-4	-17
70	Angola	482	-2	6
71	Uganda	470	12	49
72	Peru	466	-2	2
73	Uzbekistan	463	3	14
73	Zambia	463	-2	0
75	South Africa	461	5	19
76	Iraq	459	-1	7
77	Trinidad and Tobago	455	1	12
78	Rwanda	450	9	44
79	Cuba	439	-6	-21
80	Bahrain	430	-6	-23
81	Albania	423	5	13
81	Libya	423	7	18
83	Iceland	421	-1	-2
84	New Zealand	419	-24	-113
84	Togo	419	7	23
86	Belarus	417	-22	-90
87	Gambia	413	3	13
87	Qatar	413	-9	-30
89	Panama	411	0	7
90	Canada	409	-9	-25
91	Congo DR	401	3	13
92	Austria	388	0	-3
93	Sudan	385	8	25
94	Cyprus	377	13	40
95	Mozambique	375	-3	-16
96	Oman	374	-1	-11
97	Moldova	373	-21	-76
97	Zimbabwe	373	0	-2
99	Tanzania	371	6	30
100	China PR	367	-2	-4
101	Benin	362	-6	-23
102	Haiti	357	3	16
103	Ethiopia	349	-1	1
104	Malawi	343	-1	-3
105	Syria	339	-1	-5
106	Fiji	333	31	133
107	Cape Verde Islands	331	4	28
108	Guatemala	328	0	7
109	Georgia	327	-10	-36
110	United Arab Emirates	317	3	18
111	El Salvador	314	-2	8
112	Montenegro	310	3	25
113	Armenia	303	-3	-1
113	Korea DPR	303	-1	2
115	Namibia	287	-1	-3
116	Sierra Leone	286	8	33
117	Botswana	282	2	3
118	Grenada	269	21	70
119	Chad	260	4	0
119	Estonia	260	12	25
121	Luxembourg	259	6	14
122	Barbados	258	-22	-103
122	Equatorial Guinea	258	-2	-18
124	Bermuda	250	2	-1
124	Jordan	250	-6	-32
126	Thailand	246	-10	-37
127	Antigua and Barbuda	238	6	22
127	Kuwait	238	1	-5
129	Suriname	231	0	-8
130	New Caledonia	229	-9	-46
131	Guyana	226	-15	-57
132	Singapore	224	4	17
133	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	221	-11	-45
134	Burundi	211	-4	-26
135	Azerbaijan	209	-1	1
136	Madagascar	207	-2	-1
137	Kazakhstan	199	-12	-53
138	Swaziland	190	2	9
139	Liberia	179	3	0
140	Indonesia	177	-8	-44
141	Vanuatu	176	2	1
142	Puerto Rico	175	-1	-5
143	Niger	168	4	10
144	India	165	0	-9
145	Tajikistan	162	1	-1
145	Yemen	162	0	-7
147	Malta	151	3	-2
148	Turkmenistan	150	0	-6
149	Liechtenstein	147	3	2
150	Lebanon	146	-1	-8
151	Hong Kong	138	5	14
152	Netherlands Antilles	128	3	0
152	St. Kitts and Nevis	128	11	23
154	Maldives	126	-1	-7
155	Malaysia	120	-4	-32
156	Vietnam	118	3	3
157	Myanmar	117	1	1
158	Mauritania	112	2	0
159	Eritrea	109	-22	-91
160	Philippines	107	-3	-11
161	Lesotho	106	0	-3
162	Kyrgyzstan	101	-8	-28
163	Solomon Islands	100	2	0
163	Sri Lanka	100	3	9
165	Pakistan	92	3	2
166	Seychelles	91	0	0
167	Chinese Taipei	85	3	3
168	Turks and Caicos Islands	83	1	0
169	Laos	80	-7	-28
170	Bahamas	74	1	-7
170	Mauritius	74	3	0
172	Cayman Islands	73	-8	-28
173	Belize	71	3	0
173	Nepal	71	4	4
175	Bangladesh	70	6	16
176	Samoa	64	4	0
176	St. Lucia	64	-4	-11
178	Cambodia	56	-4	-16
179	Palestine	53	4	6
180	British Virgin Islands	49	-3	-18
181	Afghanistan	45	2	-2
181	Brunei Darussalam	45	1	-7
181	Nicaragua	45	4	0
184	Faroe Islands	42	2	5
185	Dominican Republic	40	-6	-26
186	Guinea-Bissau	39	-12	-33
187	Bhutan	33	0	1
188	Djibouti	32	-1	0
188	Tahiti	32	-1	0
188	Tonga	32	-1	0
191	Dominica	25	0	0
192	Mongolia	24	0	0
193	Aruba	22	0	0
194	Andorra	20	0	1
195	US Virgin Islands	17	0	0
196	Macau	10	1	0
197	Timor-Leste	9	1	0
198	Comoros	8	-2	-5
199	Central African Republic	6	1	0
200	Somalia	5	-1	-3
201	American Samoa	0	0	0
201	Anguilla	0	0	0
201	Cook Islands	0	0	0
201	Guam	0	0	0
201	Montserrat	0	0	0
201	Papua New Guinea	0	0	0
201	San Marino	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.