FIFA World Rankings July 2010 (Can You Guess Who’s Top?)

July 14th, 2010 | by: Daryl |

fifa rankings

FIFA has released its first post-World Cup 2010 rankings, and – as you’d expect – there’s been plenty of movement. Nnew top dogs are World Cup 2010 winners Spain, obviously, with losing finalists the Netherlands in second. Former #1 Brazil is now third.

The big big movers are Uruguay, whose run to the World Cup semifinals was worth a jump of 10 places to 6th in the world rankings. Welcome back to the big time Uruguay. Germany’s third place finish saw them jump a couple of places to fourth, but the real story is the World Cup losers.

Cameroon’s three straight defeats in South Africa resulted in a 21 place plummet to #40. Not what Samuel Eto’o had planned. Similarly, Italy dropped out of top 10, and France fell all the way out of the top 20.

Possibly the strangest mover was Egypt, who didn’t compete at World Cup 2010, but somehow climbed three places to ninth. I’m sure there’s a mathematical reason for this, and I’m sure it has something to do with ranking points gained from winning the 2006, 2008 and 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, but the timing seems a little odd. Maybe Egypt secretly played at World Cup 2010?

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ThomasSessegnon

Ghana only at 23rd? That seems strange. After all, they were deserved semifinalists.
Sairax

England are UP a spot at 7th. Ok then.
http://www.worldcupblog.org Daryl

It shouldn't be a huge surprise that England went up one place. Obviously the tournament was disappointing for England fans, but the team still got draws and a win at the World Cup, and played in a Round of 16 game. Plus Euro 2008 (where they obviously earned zero points) gets further away and less relevant to FIFA rankings every month.
Sairax

I know, I'm not faulting that logic. It's just my brain is trying to reconcile England being the 7th best team in the world.
http://japan.worldcupblog.org/ Aidan

The rankings use performances over the last 4 years I think, with the more recent and more important getting a greater weighting. So Ghana's world cup will have improved their ranking, but it can't overwrite what they've done over a more prolonged period.
You can't just say a team did ok in the World Cup therefore they should suddenly leap up to the top 10 or higher.