FIFA World Rankings: December 2008

For the final time in 2008, FIFA did their homework and ranked every national team in the federation from 1st to 201st. Not too much movement this month, because it was mostly friendlies played in November.

Spain finished the year top of the pile, which is no huge shock given their Euro 2008 win followed by win after win to start the Word Cup 2010 qualifying campaign. Spain fans are hoping they don’t wake up on Jan 1st to find that what they thought was 2008 was all just a dream and la furia roja are still useless at tournament football.

The top 20 is below, but as a special bonus (or rather, because we couldn’t think of much interesting to write about the actual rankings) we’ve sorted the rankings to find the top 5 (according to FIFA anyway) teams by confederation too.

First the top 20, with November’s position in brackets.

1. (1) Spain

2. (2) Germany

3. (4) Netherlands

4. (3) Italy

5. (5) Brazil

6. (6) Argentina

7. (7) Croatia

8. (10) England

9. (8) Russia

10. (13) Turkey

11= (12) France

11= (10) Portugal

11= (9) Czech Republic

14. (14) Cameroon

15. (20) Ukraine

16. (21) Egypt

17. (17) Paraguay

18. (15) Israel

19. (22) Nigeria

20. (18) Greece

Full rankings here.

And now by confederation:

AFC
1. Australia (28)
2. Japan (35)
3. South Korea (42)
4. Iran (43)
5. Saudia Arabia (48)

CAF
1. Cameroon (14)
2. Egypt (16)
3. Nigeria (19)
4. Ghana (25)
5. Côte d’Ivoire (29)

CONCACAF
1. USA (22)
2. Mexico (26)
3. Honduras (40)
4. Costa Rica (53)
5. Jamaica (65)

CONMEBOL
1. Brazil (5)
2. Argentina (6)
3. Paraguay (17)
4. Uruguay (23)
5. Chile (31)

OFC
1. New Zealand (60)
2. New Caladonia (121)
3. Fiji (137)
4. Vanuatu (143)
5. Solomon Islands (165)

UEFA
1. Spain (1)
2. Germany (2)
3. Netherlands (3)
4. Italy (4)
5. Croatia (7)

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