FIFA Ranking: March 2016 preview

FIFA will publish the ranking on 3 March.

Apparently, FIFA have a mistake in the February ranking points for Congo DR and Burundi. The only explanation I have is the 15 Nov 2015 FIFA World Cup qualifier between these two teams was awarded to Congo DR, despite finishing 2 - 2 on the field. However, while this would solve the point differences, there has been no announcement on FIFA.com.

Ed found the announcement. However, the match still shows up as 2:2 on FIFA.com.



9 matches left - all friendlies. Although FIFA doesn't have yet the final and 3rd placed final of CHAN 2016, I've included them anyway.

This is how the points and ranks could change for the 17 teams involved.

Team - Minimum points - Maximum points - Worst rank - Best rank

Mexico	886	902	23	22
USA	777	792	33	30
Côte d'Ivoire	719	744	38	36
Senegal	603	641	48	44
Panama	562	576	60	55
Congo DR	545	564	63	57
Guinea	540	568	63	56
Mali	490	511	73	67
Uzbekistan	469	484	76	74
Canada	385	418	88	82
Honduras	375	392	89	87
El Salvador	340	366	99	93
Guatemala	336	354	100	95
Bahrain	254	269	138	132
Lebanon	215	254	145	138
Guyana	140	165	161	156
Suriname	57	82	190	181

In the table below I've used the minimum points.

Best movers:

7 - Armenia
6 - Venezuela, Kazakhstan

Worst movers:

-15 - São Tomé e Príncipe
-14 - Chad
-11 - Equatorial Guinea

Best movers in the top 50:

3 - Poland
2 - Cape Verde Islands
1 - Italy, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Sweden, Albania, Peru, Serbia

Worst movers in the top 50:

-8 - Côte d'Ivoire
-1 - Netherlands, Slovakia, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Norway

Cape Verde Islands will replace Côte d'Ivoire as the top team in Africa. The Ivorians will fall to 3rd if they don't win the CHAN 2016 3rd place final avoiding PSO.

Os Tubarões Azuis (The Blue Sharks) will lead the pack for the first time ever. This is a list of the top teams in Africa since the ranking was created and the number of editions they have been at the top.

1	Cameroon	60
2	Nigeria	45
3	Côte d'Ivoire	44
4	Morocco	31
5	South Africa	18
6	Algeria	17
7	Egypt	16
8	Ghana	10
8	Zambia	10
10	Tunisia	9

Japan climb from 4th to 2nd in Asia.

With a win vs. Canada today, the US will climb to 2nd in CONCACAF.

Moldova will fall to new worst ever ranking (156 - 155 in December 2015).

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

Turkmenistan (113 - 112 in November 2005) - 10 years and 4 months
Swaziland (124 - 123 in July 2008) - 7 years and 8 months
Northern Ireland (28 - 27 in June 2009) - 6 years and 9 months

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

Bahrain (at most 132 - 138 in January 2001) - 15 years and 2 months

Côte d'Ivoire (at most 36 - 38 in June 2009) - 6 years and 9 months

Cape Verde Islands will be ranked above Côte d'Ivoire for the first time ever.
Albania will be ranked above Côte d'Ivoire for the first time ever.
Kazakhstan will be ranked above Lithuania for the first time ever.
Kazakhstan will be ranked above Bahrain for the first time in the last 13 years and 7 months.

March 2016 rank - Team - March 2016 points - +/- Ranking - +/- Points

1	Belgium	1506	0	12
2	Argentina	1457	0	2
3	Spain	1374	0	4
4	Germany	1355	0	8
5	Chile	1307	0	14
6	Brazil	1254	0	3
7	Portugal	1234	0	15
8	Colombia	1215	0	4
9	England	1112	0	6
10	Austria	1095	0	4
11	Uruguay	1082	0	8
12	Switzerland	1070	0	20
13	Ecuador	1039	0	-1
14	Italy	999	1	8
15	Netherlands	997	-1	3
16	Romania	990	0	3
17	Wales	984	0	10
18	Croatia	965	0	7
19	Hungary	951	0	6
20	Turkey	943	0	10
21	Bosnia and Herzegovina	917	0	12
22	Russia	892	1	-3
23	Mexico	886	-1	-12
24	France	871	0	3
25	Czech Republic	861	0	1
26	Slovakia	858	-1	-2
27	Ukraine	845	0	3
28	Northern Ireland	833	1	8
29	Republic of Ireland	809	1	-1
30	Cape Verde Islands	789	3	-1
30	Poland	789	4	2
32	Costa Rica	784	-1	-15
33	USA	777	-1	-16
34	Sweden	769	1	-2
35	Albania	754	1	8
36	Algeria	743	0	-3
37	Iceland	741	1	17
38	Côte d'Ivoire	739	-10	-89
39	Greece	718	0	12
40	Denmark	706	0	14
41	Ghana	656	0	-35
42	Peru	646	1	2
43	Paraguay	642	-1	-10
44	Iran	627	0	1
45	Scotland	617	1	8
46	Finland	615	1	9
47	Tunisia	609	1	6
48	Senegal	603	-3	-18
49	Trinidad and Tobago	598	0	0
50	Serbia	596	1	6
51	Norway	594	-1	-3
52	Jamaica	593	-1	3
53	Egypt	587	2	16
54	Slovenia	577	5	12
55	Japan	575	3	6
56	Korea Republic	566	-3	-14
57	Congo	564	-3	-15
58	Panama	562	2	-2
58	Saudi Arabia	562	-3	-9
60	Congo DR	557	-3	-13
61	Guinea	554	0	-5
62	Cameroon	551	0	4
63	Nigeria	547	0	4
64	Belarus	517	3	3
64	Haiti	517	1	-3
64	United Arab Emirates	517	1	-3
67	Australia	506	1	-4
67	Israel	506	6	8
67	Uganda	506	3	3
70	Mali	502	-2	-8
71	Bulgaria	500	4	6
71	South Africa	500	2	2
73	Bolivia	499	-1	-1
74	Venezuela	480	7	57
75	Equatorial Guinea	479	-11	-51
76	Uzbekistan	469	-5	-33
77	Benin	464	0	6
78	Zambia	457	-2	-25
79	Cyprus	442	0	1
80	Qatar	441	-2	-3
81	Morocco	424	-1	-1
82	Jordan	414	0	-4
83	Gabon	412	0	-4
84	Montenegro	409	0	6
85	Burkina Faso	405	0	3
86	Rwanda	397	-1	-5
87	Canada	385	-2	-17
88	Estonia	376	0	-3
89	Honduras	375	2	5
90	Antigua and Barbuda	373	0	2
91	Iraq	371	-2	-1
92	Botswana	370	0	3
93	Faroe Islands	357	1	0
94	Korea DPR	356	1	6
95	China PR	351	-2	-14
96	Oman	342	1	-3
97	Latvia	341	3	3
98	El Salvador	340	0	-4
99	Mozambique	337	3	3
100	Guatemala	336	-4	-11
101	Liberia	333	0	-4
101	Togo	333	2	4
103	Kenya	331	-4	-8
104	Malawi	329	0	2
105	Kyrgyzstan	324	0	0
106	Mauritania	320	1	0
107	Libya	319	-2	-5
108	Niger	312	1	4
109	Angola	306	2	0
110	Central African Republic	302	2	0
110	Nicaragua	302	-2	-9
112	Azerbaijan	300	4	4
113	Aruba	298	1	0
113	Turkmenistan	298	1	0
115	Sierra Leone	297	2	7
116	Armenia	296	7	11
117	Palestine	290	-7	-17
118	St. Kitts and Nevis	289	0	0
119	Thailand	288	1	2
120	Belize	286	0	0
121	Ethiopia	285	3	1
122	Georgia	283	-2	-3
123	Syria	279	2	1
124	Swaziland	277	3	0
125	Kazakhstan	276	6	10
125	Tanzania	276	0	-2
127	Chad	275	-14	-26
128	Lithuania	274	0	0
129	Burundi	273	-10	-15
130	Madagascar	272	-1	0
131	Zimbabwe	271	0	5
132	Kuwait	265	1	0
132	Namibia	265	2	1
134	Cuba	263	5	13
134	Philippines	263	0	-1
134	Sudan	263	2	2
137	FYR Macedonia	257	1	0
138	Bahrain	254	-8	-15
139	Hong Kong	253	-2	-6
140	South Sudan	246	0	0
141	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	243	3	22
142	Luxembourg	233	0	-4
143	Barbados	227	0	0
144	St. Lucia	216	1	0
145	Lebanon	215	-5	-31
146	Vietnam	210	0	1
147	Guinea-Bissau	207	0	0
148	Singapore	198	0	2
149	New Zealand	196	1	4
150	Tajikistan	193	-2	-3
151	Afghanistan	192	3	9
151	Curaçao	192	-1	0
153	Lesotho	186	-1	0
154	Guam	169	2	0
154	Myanmar	169	-1	-16
156	Moldova	165	-1	-5
157	Maldives	161	0	-1
158	Bermuda	154	0	0
159	Dominican Republic	150	1	0
160	India	142	2	3
161	Guyana	140	1	1
162	Grenada	139	0	0
162	Malta	139	-1	-4
164	Liechtenstein	137	1	2
165	Gambia	135	0	0
166	Malaysia	129	5	3
167	American Samoa	128	0	0
167	Cook Islands	128	0	0
167	Samoa	128	0	0
170	Puerto Rico	127	2	7
170	Timor-Leste	127	0	0
172	Mauritius	120	0	0
173	Comoros	119	1	0
174	São Tomé e Príncipe	117	-15	-35
175	Yemen	112	0	-1
176	Dominica	109	0	2
177	Bangladesh	100	0	0
178	Indonesia	88	2	2
178	Laos	88	0	0
178	US Virgin Islands	88	0	0
181	Chinese Taipei	80	0	0
181	New Caledonia	80	0	0
183	Cambodia	79	0	0
184	Brunei Darussalam	74	0	0
185	Nepal	70	3	4
186	Fiji	68	0	0
187	Montserrat	67	0	0
187	Pakistan	67	-2	-5
189	Sri Lanka	62	0	4
190	Suriname	57	0	0
191	Seychelles	56	0	0
191	Tahiti	56	0	0
193	Bhutan	49	0	0
194	Vanuatu	47	0	0
195	Macau	44	0	0
196	Cayman Islands	42	0	0
197	Turks and Caicos Islands	33	0	0
198	San Marino	28	0	0
199	British Virgin Islands	27	0	0
200	Solomon Islands	26	0	0
201	Andorra	6	0	0
202	Mongolia	4	-1	-2
202	Papua New Guinea	4	1	0
204	Anguilla	0	0	0
204	Bahamas	0	0	0
204	Djibouti	0	0	0
204	Eritrea	0	0	0
204	Somalia	0	0	0
204	Tonga	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.