FIFA Ranking: January 2010 preview (IV)

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 January 21st, 2010.

FIFA will publish the ranking on February 3rd.

I might post a final update on Monday, if I can find the time.

Three matches left: Nigeria - Algeria (2010 ACN third place match), Ghana - Egypt (2010 ACN final) and Jamaica - Canada (friendly). I'm not so sure about Jamaica - Canada being included.

Here's how the totals can change for these six teams:

Egypt (1012 - loss, 1034 - PSO loss, 1056 - PSO win, 1077 - win)
Nigeria (862 - loss, 902 - PSO loss, 937 - PSO win, 972 - win)
Ghana (823 - loss, 852 - PSO loss, 882 - PSO win, 911 - win)
Algeria (784 - loss, 819 - PSO loss, 855 - PSO win, 890 - win)
Canada (527 - loss, 540 - draw, 566 - win)
Jamaica (387 - loss, 399 - draw, 423 - win)

In the ranking table, the value displayed for these teams is the minimum possible value. This means that even if they lose, their total can't drop.

Egypt could climb to 8th with a win against Ghana.

Best movers:

25 - Yemen
18 - Gambia
17 - Malawi and Tajikistan

Worst movers:

-29 - Nicaragua
-21 - Burundi
-17 - Guinea

Best movers in the top 50:

11 - Egypt
7 - Ghana
4 - Gabon

Both Egypt and Ghana can still improve.

Worst movers in the top 50:

-8 - Cameroon
-6 - Côte d'Ivoire and Mali
-5 - Algeria

Algeria could limit the damage and could even improve their best ever ranking with a win against Nigeria.

Saudi Arabia overtake Bahrain for 4th place in AFC.

Egypt will be the new African top team even if they lose against Ghana in the 2010 ACN final.

Three teams will have their best ever ranking:

Egypt (13th - 15th in January 2009)
Venezuela (47th - 48th in April 2004)
Montenegro (72nd - 73rd in November 2009)

Mongolia will return to their best ever ranking - 170th first achieved in November 2009.

Two teams will return to their worst ever ranking:

Tunisia (56th - first achieved in March 2008)
Tahiti (195th - first achieved in November 2009)

Four teams will have their worst ever ranking:

Romania (38th - 36th in October 2009)
Sweden (43rd - 42nd in July 2009)
Morocco (65th - 63rd in November 2009)
Guinea-Bissau (195th - 194th in December 2009)

January 2010 rank - Team - January 2010 points - +/- Ranking - +/- Points

1	Spain	1627	0	0
2	Brazil	1568	0	0
3	Netherlands	1288	0	0
4	Italy	1209	0	0
5	Portugal	1176	0	0
6	Germany	1173	0	0
7	France	1117	0	0
8	Argentina	1082	0	-3
9	England	1076	0	0
10	Croatia	1053	0	11
11	Greece	1030	2	14
12	Russia	1026	0	0
13	Egypt	1012	11	180
14	USA	963	0	-17
15	Chile	955	0	19
16	Mexico	947	1	16
17	Switzerland	924	1	0
18	Serbia	916	1	0
19	Cameroon	914	-8	-121
20	Uruguay	909	0	0
21	Nigeria	868	1	20
22	Côte d'Ivoire	865	-6	-69
23	Australia	857	-2	-6
24	Ukraine	848	-2	0
25	Czech Republic	828	0	0
26	Denmark	827	2	7
27	Ghana	823	7	76
27	Israel	823	-1	0
29	Paraguay	806	0	0
30	Bulgaria	801	0	0
31	Algeria	784	-5	-39
32	Norway	772	0	12
33	Slovenia	767	-2	0
34	Honduras	759	3	21
35	Ecuador	753	2	15
36	Slovakia	752	-3	0
37	Republic of Ireland	746	-2	0
38	Romania	745	-2	0
39	Colombia	736	0	0
40	Japan	729	3	20
40	Northern Ireland	729	0	0
42	Turkey	728	-1	0
43	Sweden	727	-1	6
44	Gabon	706	4	46
45	Costa Rica	699	-1	-2
46	Scotland	665	0	0
47	Venezuela	646	3	0
48	Bosnia-Herzegovina	645	3	3
49	Korea Republic	634	3	9
49	Latvia	634	-4	-43
51	Burkina Faso	616	-2	-34
51	Hungary	616	3	3
53	Mali	598	-6	-64
54	Finland	576	1	-16
55	Bolivia	573	1	0
56	Tunisia	572	-3	-42
57	Poland	567	1	11
58	Saudi Arabia	538	5	28
59	Bahrain	529	1	5
60	Canada	527	-4	-46
61	Austria	523	0	0
62	Lithuania	522	0	0
63	Iran	499	1	-9
64	FYR Macedonia	495	1	0
65	Belgium	491	1	0
65	Morocco	491	2	14
67	Benin	483	-8	-49
68	Cyprus	471	0	0
68	Peru	471	0	0
70	Togo	468	1	1
71	El Salvador	464	7	51
72	Montenegro	456	2	0
73	Zambia	449	11	69
74	Uganda	447	1	-8
75	Uzbekistan	431	1	-9
76	Wales	420	1	0
77	Panama	406	-7	-63
78	New Zealand	400	4	0
79	Belarus	397	1	-9
80	South Africa	390	5	13
81	Jamaica	387	0	-16
82	Malawi	384	17	58
82	Mozambique	384	-10	-78
84	Trinidad and Tobago	382	-2	-18
85	Korea DPR	377	1	1
86	Iraq	375	2	11
87	China PR	373	6	33
88	Angola	371	7	34
89	Qatar	370	-3	-6
90	Guinea	360	-17	-98
91	Senegal	359	-2	-2
92	Kuwait	358	12	57
93	Oman	352	-14	-58
94	Iceland	349	-2	3
95	Haiti	347	-5	-1
96	Moldova	338	-2	0
97	Albania	336	-1	0
98	Gambia	333	18	110
99	Thailand	332	6	36
100	Cape Verde Islands	331	-3	0
100	Syria	331	-9	-16
102	Armenia	321	-2	0
103	Congo	320	-2	0
104	Estonia	315	-2	7
105	Yemen	294	25	118
106	Rwanda	276	-4	-32
107	Jordan	275	4	20
108	Tanzania	267	-2	-23
109	Namibia	251	4	5
109	Sudan	251	-1	-17
111	Congo DR	248	-4	-23
112	Kenya	244	-14	-83
113	United Arab Emirates	241	-1	-7
114	Azerbaijan	235	0	-1
115	Libya	233	0	1
116	Vietnam	231	7	28
117	Zimbabwe	228	-8	-37
118	Faroe Islands	222	-1	0
119	Botswana	220	-1	1
120	Singapore	217	-10	-43
121	Ethiopia	204	1	0
122	Georgia	202	2	0
123	Kazakhstan	201	2	1
124	Luxembourg	195	4	10
125	Cuba	191	-6	-27
126	Guyana	186	1	-5
127	Antigua and Barbuda	184	3	8
128	Barbados	171	1	-10
129	Fiji	167	3	0
130	India	166	4	8
131	Guatemala	164	-10	-41
132	Sierra Leone	159	6	14
133	Grenada	158	5	13
133	Turkmenistan	158	8	19
135	Bermuda	157	7	19
136	Indonesia	154	-16	-52
137	Hong Kong	153	6	16
138	Equatorial Guinea	152	-3	0
138	Swaziland	152	-3	0
140	Maldives	146	-3	0
141	Myanmar	144	-1	2
142	Suriname	133	2	0
143	Chad	130	2	0
144	Malta	129	2	1
145	Lebanon	127	3	2
146	New Caledonia	126	1	0
147	Burundi	124	-21	-71
148	Tajikistan	123	17	36
149	Lesotho	120	1	0
150	Bangladesh	117	-1	-5
151	Sri Lanka	115	0	0
152	Nepal	112	0	0
153	Liechtenstein	110	1	0
154	Vanuatu	108	1	0
155	St. Kitts and Nevis	106	1	0
156	Madagascar	105	2	0
156	Pakistan	105	0	-1
158	Kyrgyzstan	103	1	0
159	Malaysia	100	1	-2
160	Liberia	98	1	0
161	Mauritania	93	8	23
162	Chinese Taipei	92	0	-1
162	Eritrea	92	1	0
162	Nicaragua	92	-29	-73
162	Niger	92	1	0
166	Puerto Rico	89	-1	2
167	Philippines	85	0	2
168	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	82	-16	-30
169	Netherlands Antilles	80	-1	0
170	Mongolia	61	1	0
171	Solomon Islands	60	1	0
172	Palestine	57	1	0
173	Cambodia	56	2	0
174	Turks and Caicos Islands	45	3	0
175	Seychelles	44	3	0
176	Bahamas	43	4	0
176	Comoros	43	0	-3
178	Mauritius	40	3	0
179	Cayman Islands	39	4	3
179	Laos	39	-1	-5
179	Somalia	39	-9	-25
182	Dominica	38	15	26
182	Samoa	38	0	0
184	Cook Islands	34	0	0
184	Guam	34	0	0
186	Belize	33	-13	-24
187	St. Lucia	32	-1	0
188	Macau	31	-1	0
189	Tonga	28	-1	0
190	Dominican Republic	26	0	0
191	British Virgin Islands	25	0	0
191	Brunei Darussalam	25	0	0
193	Djibouti	23	-4	-4
194	Afghanistan	20	-1	0
195	Guinea-Bissau	19	-1	0
195	Tahiti	19	-1	0
197	Bhutan	17	-1	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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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.