FIFA Ranking: December 2009 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 up to and including December 10th, 2009 - the official deadline for matches. However, FIFA could include more matches, but no later than December 13th.

Best movers:

24 - Nepal
17 - Jordan
16 - Bangladesh

Worst movers:

-35 - Grenada
-23 - Cuba
-14 - Barbados

Best movers in the top 50:

5 - Egypt
3 - Ghana
2 - Chile, Ukraine, Algeria and Slovenia

Worst movers in the top 50:

-4 - Romania
-3 - Bulgaria
-2 - Mexico, Czech Republic, Denmark and Ecuador

Iran drop out of the AFC top 5, replaced by Saudi Arabia.
Egypt overtake Algeria for 4th in Africa and 1st in the Arab world. Some consolation...

Two teams will improve their best ever ranking:

Algeria (26th - 28th in November 2009)
Comoros (176th - 178th in November 2009)

Two teams will return to their worst ever ranking:

Romania (36th - first achieved in October 2009)
Guinea-Bissau (193rd - first achieved in February 2007)

Two teams will have their worst ever ranking:

Liberia (161st - 160th in October 2009)
Dominican Republic (190th - 188th in September 2006)

December 2009 rank - Team - December 2009 points - +/- Ranking - +/- Points

1	Spain	1627	0	5
2	Brazil	1568	0	-24
3	Netherlands	1288	0	9
4	Italy	1209	0	-6
5	Portugal	1176	0	-5
6	Germany	1173	0	3
7	France	1117	0	-5
8	Argentina	1085	0	0
9	England	1076	0	13
10	Croatia	1042	0	-8
11	Cameroon	1035	0	0
12	Russia	1026	1	7
13	Greece	1016	-1	-12
14	USA	980	0	0
15	Chile	936	2	10
16	Côte d'Ivoire	934	0	7
17	Mexico	931	-2	0
18	Switzerland	924	0	0
19	Serbia	916	1	16
20	Uruguay	909	-1	8
21	Australia	863	0	0
22	Nigeria	848	0	0
22	Ukraine	848	2	6
24	Egypt	833	5	13
25	Czech Republic	828	-2	-15
26	Algeria	823	2	0
26	Israel	823	-1	-14
28	Denmark	820	-2	-15
29	Paraguay	806	1	-10
30	Bulgaria	801	-3	-26
31	Slovenia	767	2	11
32	Norway	760	-1	-20
33	Slovakia	751	1	-4
34	Ghana	747	3	8
35	Republic of Ireland	746	1	0
36	Romania	745	-4	-18
37	Ecuador	738	-2	-12
37	Honduras	738	1	0
39	Colombia	736	1	0
40	Northern Ireland	730	-1	-7
41	Turkey	728	0	-1
42	Sweden	721	0	-6
43	Japan	709	0	0
44	Costa Rica	701	0	7
45	Latvia	677	0	7
46	Scotland	665	0	0
47	Mali	662	0	0
48	Gabon	660	0	0
49	Burkina Faso	650	0	0
50	Venezuela	646	0	0
51	Bosnia-Herzegovina	642	0	-1
52	Korea Republic	625	0	0
53	Tunisia	614	0	1
54	Hungary	613	1	10
55	Finland	592	-1	-13
56	Bolivia	573	1	0
56	Canada	573	1	0
58	Poland	556	-2	-19
59	Benin	532	0	-2
60	Bahrain	524	1	0
61	Austria	523	1	3
62	Lithuania	521	-2	-4
63	Saudi Arabia	509	2	8
64	Iran	507	-1	-11
65	FYR Macedonia	495	1	4
66	Belgium	492	-2	-12
67	Morocco	477	0	1
68	Cyprus	471	0	-1
68	Peru	471	2	4
70	Panama	469	-1	1
71	Togo	467	-1	0
72	Mozambique	462	0	0
73	Guinea	459	2	9
74	Montenegro	456	-1	0
75	Uganda	455	3	27
76	Uzbekistan	440	0	3
77	Wales	420	2	-7
78	El Salvador	412	4	5
79	Oman	410	4	7
80	Belarus	406	0	-20
81	Jamaica	404	-7	-47
82	New Zealand	400	-5	-33
82	Trinidad and Tobago	400	-1	-21
84	Zambia	380	6	22
85	Korea DPR	377	-1	-22
85	South Africa	377	1	0
87	Qatar	376	0	2
88	Iraq	364	0	0
89	Senegal	361	0	-1
90	Haiti	349	-5	-35
91	Iceland	346	1	0
91	Syria	346	0	-2
93	China PR	340	4	12
94	Moldova	338	-1	0
95	Angola	337	-1	0
96	Albania	336	2	9
97	Cape Verde Islands	331	4	15
98	Kenya	327	7	35
99	Malawi	326	-5	-11
100	Armenia	321	-1	-2
101	Congo	320	-1	0
102	Estonia	308	0	5
102	Rwanda	308	8	53
104	Kuwait	301	-1	3
105	Thailand	296	2	7
106	Tanzania	289	0	-2
107	Congo DR	271	2	10
108	Sudan	268	3	21
109	Zimbabwe	265	-1	0
110	Singapore	260	1	13
111	Jordan	256	17	71
112	United Arab Emirates	248	-1	1
113	Namibia	246	1	0
114	Azerbaijan	237	2	0
115	Libya	232	3	4
116	Gambia	224	6	6
117	Faroe Islands	222	3	2
118	Botswana	219	3	0
119	Cuba	218	-23	-113
120	Indonesia	206	7	8
121	Ethiopia	205	10	23
121	Guatemala	205	4	2
123	Vietnam	203	7	19
124	Georgia	202	1	-1
125	Kazakhstan	200	-6	-26
126	Burundi	195	-2	-19
127	Guyana	191	-10	-41
128	Luxembourg	185	0	0
129	Barbados	181	-14	-57
130	Antigua and Barbuda	176	-7	-40
130	Yemen	176	2	-1
132	Fiji	167	1	-7
133	Nicaragua	165	1	0
134	India	158	1	-5
135	Equatorial Guinea	152	0	-11
135	Swaziland	152	3	0
137	Sierra Leone	145	4	8
138	Grenada	144	-35	-154
139	Myanmar	142	-4	-21
140	Turkmenistan	139	0	0
141	Bermuda	138	3	5
141	Maldives	138	5	6
143	Hong Kong	137	-2	0
144	Suriname	133	0	0
145	Chad	130	2	0
146	Malta	128	3	0
147	Lebanon	126	0	-4
147	New Caledonia	126	-8	-21
149	Bangladesh	122	16	39
150	Sri Lanka	121	4	13
151	Lesotho	120	-1	0
152	Nepal	112	24	59
152	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	112	-9	-24
154	Liechtenstein	110	-2	0
155	Vanuatu	108	2	7
156	St. Kitts and Nevis	107	3	13
157	Pakistan	106	4	18
158	Madagascar	105	-3	0
159	Kyrgyzstan	103	-3	0
160	Malaysia	102	-8	-8
161	Liberia	98	-3	0
162	Chinese Taipei	93	-2	0
163	Eritrea	92	-12	-23
163	Niger	92	1	6
165	Puerto Rico	87	-3	0
166	Tajikistan	86	-4	-1
167	Philippines	83	-2	0
168	Netherlands Antilles	80	0	0
169	Mauritania	70	0	0
170	Somalia	64	-3	-18
171	Mongolia	61	-1	0
172	Solomon Islands	60	-1	0
173	Belize	57	0	0
173	Palestine	57	2	3
175	Cambodia	56	-3	-3
176	Comoros	46	2	0
177	Turks and Caicos Islands	45	2	0
178	Laos	44	-4	-11
178	Seychelles	44	2	0
180	Bahamas	42	-3	-5
181	Mauritius	40	1	0
182	Samoa	38	1	0
183	Cayman Islands	36	1	0
184	Cook Islands	34	1	0
184	Guam	34	1	0
186	St. Lucia	32	2	0
187	Macau	31	2	0
188	Tonga	28	3	0
189	Djibouti	27	-4	-7
190	Dominican Republic	26	-9	-15
191	British Virgin Islands	25	1	0
191	Brunei Darussalam	25	1	0
193	Guinea-Bissau	20	-3	-9
194	Afghanistan	19	-2	-6
194	Tahiti	19	1	0
196	Bhutan	17	0	0
197	Dominica	12	0	0
198	Aruba	11	0	0
199	US Virgin Islands	8	0	0
200	Central African Republic	4	0	0
200	Timor-Leste	4	0	0
202	Andorra	3	0	0
203	American Samoa	0	0	0
203	Anguilla	0	0	0
203	Montserrat	0	0	0
203	Papua New Guinea	0	0	0
203	San Marino	0	0	0

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