FIFA World Rankings, August 2009: Er…Not Much Has Changed

There has been little change in the World Rankings for August as announced yesterday by FIFA.

Brazil remain top, leading the way from Spain in second. Paraguay have re-entered the top twenty at the expense of Uruguay whilst Germany have leapfrogged World Champions Italy into fourth place.

Mexico’s victory at last month’s CONCACAF Gold Cup has seen them rise three places but they still find themselves in a rather lowly 30th spot, still paying the price for their poor form in World Cup Qualifying over the past year. Defeated finalists USA remain in 12th place.

Canada are the biggest movers on the back of the Gold Cup, climbing 26 places to 66^th after their run to the quarter-finals.

None of the home nations have seen any movement; England are still ranked seventh with Scotland in 24^th. Northern Ireland (32^nd) are still marginally ahead of Republic of Ireland (37^th) while Wales are 67^th.

Several World Cup Qualifiers are to played next week, most notably Mexico vs. USA as well as a whole host of friendly internationals which see several of the top ten pitted against each other, as Holland play England in Amsterdam and Russia entertain Argentina in Moscow.

FIFA World Rankings, Top 20, August 2009-08-06

(movements from July rankings in parenthesis)

1.  Brazil (-)

2.  Spain (-)

3.  Holland (-)

4.  Germany (+1)

5.  Italy (-1)

6.  Russia (-)

7.  England (-)

8.  Argentina (-)

9.  France (-)

10. Croatia (-)

11. Greece (-)

12. USA (-)

13. Switzerland (-)

14. Serbia (-)

15. Denmark (-)

16. Australia (-)

17. Portugal (-)

18. Cote d’Ivoire (-)

19. Ukraine (-)

20. Paraguay (+2)