FIFA World Rankings, November 2009: Spain Topple Brazil

Spain have returned to the top of the FIFA World Rankings, as published yesterday, replacing Brazil, who had held the No. 1 position for the previous four months.

The Confederations Cup champions now occupy second place after friendly wins over England and Oman last week.  Spain beat Argentina 2-1 in Madrid before crushing Austria 5-1 in Vienna on Wednesday night.

Portugal are the big movers in the top 10, rising five places to fifth position after safely securing their passage to South Africa via a playoff with Bosnia Herzegovina.

France also climbed a couple of places on the back of their controversial playoff victory over the Republic of Ireland.

The two countries feel the benefit this month of having played competitive World Cup Qualifying matches, which are extremely valuable in terms of ranking points.

It is for this reason that FIFA have announced that the October rankings will be used to determine the seedings for the World Cup draw on Dec. 4 due to the November rankings giving an unfair advantage to the European nations who played competitive games while every team who had already qualified played friendlies.

Also feeling the benefit from winning play-off matches were Greece and Uruguay, who rose four and six places respectively.

Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire also made good progress, climbing three places each, after successfully rounding off their World Cup Qualifying campaigns.

Outside of the top 20, Nigeria have moved up 10 places to 22nd after booking their place in South Africa next summer against all odds.

Slovenia were rewarded for their surprise playoff win over Russia on away-goals with a rise of 16 places to 33rd position, their highest ranking since January 2004.

FIFA World Rankings, Top 20, November 2009

(movements from October rankings in parenthesis)

1.  Spain (+1)

2.  Brazil (-1)

3.  Netherlands (-)

4.  Italy (-)

5.  Portugal (+5)

6.  Germany (-1)

7.  France (+2)

8.  Argentina (-2)

9.  England (-2)

10. Croatia (-2)

11. Cameroon (+3)

12. Greece (+4)

13. Russia (-1)

14. USA (-3)

15. Mexico (+3)

16. Cote d’Ivoire (+3)

17. Chile (-)

18. Switzerland (-5)

19. Uruguay (+6)

20. Serbia (-)