FIFA Ranking: December 2014 final preview

FIFA will publish the ranking on 18 December.

Only one match left:

13/Dec Uzbekistan - Palestine (Friendly)

This is how the points and rankings could change for these 2 teams:

Team - Minimum points - Maximum points - Minimum rank - Maximum rank

Uzbekistan	432	454	79	74
Palestine	271	296	113	109

In the table below, I've used the minimum points for these 2 teams.

Best movers:

22 - Rwanda
16 - Zambia
12 - Maldives

Worst movers:

-34 - Cuba
-15 - Dominican Republic
-14 - Antigua and Barbuda

Best movers in the top 50:

16 - Zambia
8 - Serbia
1 - Greece, Ukraine, Ecuador, USA

Worst movers in the top 50:

-8 - Albania
-4 - Côte d'Ivoire
-2 - Slovenia

One team will improve its best ever ranking:

Rwanda (68 - 78 in December 2008)

One team will return to its best ever ranking:

Faroe Islands (104 - 104 in July 1999)

Two teams will return to their worst ever ranking:

Gambia (168 - 168 in October 2014)
Vanuatu (191 - 191 in June 2013)

Four teams will drop to new lows:

Sweden (44 - 43 in February 2010)
India (171 - 170 in November 2014)
Cayman Islands (205 - 204 in November 2014)
Djibouti (206 - 205 in July 2014)

Some teams will reach their best ranking in the last couple of years:

Faroe Islands (104 - 104 in July 1999) - 15 years and 5 months
San Marino (179 - 161 in May 2006) - 8 years and 7 months
Maldives (130 - 129 in September 2006) - 8 years and 3 months
Tanzania (105 - 99 in October 2009) - 5 years and 2 months

Others will drop to their worst ever ranking in the last couple of years:

Japan (54 - 57 in June 2000) - 14 years and 6 months
New Zealand (134 - 156 in September 2007) - 7 years and 3 months
Grenada (155 - 157 in March 2008) - 6 years and 9 months
Nepal (186 - 188 in March 2008) - 6 years and 9 months
Côte d'Ivoire (28 - 38 in June 2009) - 5 years and 6 months

Rwanda will be ranked above Finland, Honduras, Korea Republic, Morocco, Paraguay and Venezuela for the first time ever.
Timor-Leste will be ranked above Nepal for the first time ever.

December 2014 rank - Team - December 2014 points - +/- Ranking - +/- Points

1	Germany	1725	0	0
2	Argentina	1538	0	0
3	Colombia	1450	0	0
4	Belgium	1417	0	0
5	Netherlands	1374	0	0
6	Brazil	1316	0	0
7	France	1160	0	0
7	Portugal	1160	0	0
9	Spain	1142	0	0
10	Uruguay	1135	0	0
11	Italy	1103	0	0
12	Switzerland	1091	0	0
13	England	1032	0	0
14	Chile	1022	0	0
15	Romania	1014	0	0
16	Costa Rica	997	0	2
17	Czech Republic	987	0	0
18	Algeria	948	0	0
19	Croatia	946	0	0
20	Mexico	913	0	0
21	Slovakia	891	0	0
22	Tunisia	867	0	0
23	Austria	863	0	0
24	Greece	856	1	0
25	Ukraine	854	1	0
26	Ecuador	852	1	0
27	USA	836	1	0
28	Côte d'Ivoire	833	-4	-28
29	Bosnia-Herzegovina	817	0	9
30	Denmark	804	0	0
31	Russia	789	0	0
32	Israel	788	0	0
33	Iceland	761	0	0
34	Wales	748	0	0
35	Senegal	734	0	0
36	Scotland	729	0	0
37	Ghana	714	0	0
38	Serbia	713	8	96
39	Guinea	706	-1	8
40	Cape Verde Islands	693	-1	0
41	Poland	680	-1	-4
42	Cameroon	665	-1	1
43	Nigeria	656	-1	0
44	Sweden	646	-1	0
45	Hungary	632	-1	0
46	Zambia	625	16	109
47	Slovenia	622	-2	0
48	Northern Ireland	615	-1	0
49	Turkey	604	-1	0
50	Mali	603	-1	0
51	Iran	580	5	33
52	South Africa	579	-1	11
53	Peru	565	-1	0
54	Japan	563	-1	0
55	Trinidad and Tobago	551	-1	-2
56	Congo DR	548	-1	0
57	Panama	547	-1	0
58	Albania	543	-8	-34
59	Montenegro	537	-1	0
60	Egypt	531	0	4
61	Congo	529	-2	0
62	Togo	524	0	8
63	Burkina Faso	523	2	13
64	Republic of Ireland	519	-3	0
65	Gabon	511	-1	0
66	Bulgaria	506	0	0
67	Norway	500	0	0
68	Rwanda	494	22	127
69	Korea Republic	481	0	0
70	Finland	468	0	0
71	Honduras	461	1	0
72	Guatemala	458	1	0
72	Haiti	458	-4	-26
74	Jamaica	449	-3	-18
75	Paraguay	438	0	0
75	Uganda	438	3	13
77	Libya	437	-1	0
78	Armenia	436	-1	0
79	Uzbekistan	432	-5	-16
80	Angola	395	1	1
81	Jordan	393	5	11
81	Morocco	393	1	0
81	United Arab Emirates	393	4	8
84	Estonia	390	-1	0
85	Bolivia	375	2	0
86	Sierra Leone	374	-2	-13
87	Cyprus	372	1	0
88	Venezuela	369	1	0
89	Benin	361	2	0
90	El Salvador	358	3	0
90	Malawi	358	4	1
92	Lithuania	355	3	0
93	Oman	347	3	-4
94	Antigua and Barbuda	344	-14	-69
95	Qatar	342	3	4
96	Latvia	339	1	0
97	China PR	336	2	0
98	Mozambique	332	2	-2
99	Belarus	331	2	0
100	Australia	324	2	-3
100	FYR Macedonia	324	3	0
102	Saudi Arabia	323	4	9
103	Iraq	320	1	-1
104	Faroe Islands	317	1	0
105	Tanzania	314	7	29
106	Dominican Republic	310	-15	-51
107	Botswana	309	1	0
108	Zimbabwe	308	-2	-6
109	Namibia	295	0	0
110	Sudan	294	5	29
111	Ethiopia	290	-1	3
112	Canada	287	-2	0
113	Cuba	271	-34	-152
113	Palestine	271	0	-5
115	Liberia	268	6	19
116	Kenya	261	-2	-10
116	Niger	261	0	0
118	St. Kitts and Nevis	258	-1	0
119	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	256	-1	0
120	Equatorial Guinea	251	-1	0
121	Moldova	250	-1	0
122	Bahrain	249	3	6
123	Lesotho	247	-1	0
124	Kuwait	246	-1	0
125	Georgia	239	1	0
126	Lebanon	238	1	0
127	Burundi	232	-3	-13
128	Luxembourg	230	1	0
129	Aruba	221	2	3
130	Maldives	220	12	36
130	Philippines	220	-2	-11
132	Liechtenstein	219	-2	0
133	Guinea-Bissau	218	-2	0
134	New Zealand	216	-1	0
135	Azerbaijan	215	0	0
135	Tajikistan	215	0	0
137	Mauritania	211	4	16
137	Vietnam	211	1	5
139	Kazakhstan	205	0	0
140	St. Lucia	202	5	23
141	Myanmar	200	-1	-2
142	Thailand	194	2	12
143	Afghanistan	190	-10	-26
144	Barbados	183	-1	0
145	Central African Republic	178	1	0
146	Chad	172	1	0
147	Madagascar	166	1	0
147	Malta	166	1	0
147	Turkmenistan	166	1	0
150	Korea DPR	156	-13	-55
151	Syria	154	0	6
152	Kyrgyzstan	146	1	0
153	New Caledonia	142	1	0
154	Malaysia	138	1	1
155	Grenada	137	-3	-10
156	Hong Kong	134	3	14
157	Singapore	131	1	8
158	Curaçao	125	-2	-2
159	Indonesia	123	-2	-3
160	Laos	121	-1	1
161	Guam	119	4	14
161	Puerto Rico	119	0	0
163	Suriname	115	1	6
164	Swaziland	113	-2	0
165	Bangladesh	103	-2	-8
166	Tahiti	100	0	0
167	Guyana	92	3	8
168	Gambia	90	-1	0
169	Montserrat	86	-1	0
170	Sao Tome e Principe	84	0	0
171	India	79	-1	-5
172	Sri Lanka	78	-3	-7
173	Comoros	75	0	-2
173	Nicaragua	75	1	0
175	Belize	74	2	0
176	Yemen	69	-2	-6
177	Turks and Caicos Islands	66	1	0
178	Seychelles	61	-4	-14
179	Bermuda	55	1	0
179	Cambodia	55	1	0
179	San Marino	55	1	0
182	Chinese Taipei	54	6	7
183	Solomon Islands	53	1	0
184	Dominica	52	3	4
185	Timor-Leste	51	0	0
186	Macau	49	0	0
186	Nepal	49	-7	-9
188	Pakistan	45	-5	-9
189	South Sudan	43	0	0
190	Mauritius	36	1	4
191	Vanuatu	33	-1	0
192	Fiji	30	0	0
192	Samoa	30	0	0
194	Mongolia	29	0	0
195	Bahamas	26	0	0
196	Tonga	17	0	0
197	US Virgin Islands	16	0	0
198	Brunei Darussalam	15	0	0
199	Papua New Guinea	13	0	0
200	American Samoa	12	0	0
201	Andorra	9	0	0
202	British Virgin Islands	8	0	0
202	Eritrea	8	0	0
204	Somalia	6	2	2
205	Cayman Islands	5	-1	0
206	Cook Islands	4	0	0
206	Djibouti	4	-2	-1
208	Anguilla	2	0	0
209	Bhutan	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.