FIFA World Rankings December 2008

The top three teams in the world are Euro 2008 kings Spain at the top of the rankings with Germany in second place and the Netherlands in third. Italy are down one again in fourth. Brazil are fifth, Argentina are sixth. England are up two to 8th after impressive results in World Cup qualifying and a recent friendly win in Germany.

Japan are in 35th position. South Korea are in 42nd position.

The USA are up to 22nd. Scotland stay in 33rd position. The Republic of Ireland are down to 38th position.

Source: www.fifa.com

How the rankings are calculated

Match Result: - Win-Draw-Defeat = 3 points - 1 points – 0 points
Importance of match - 1 (friendly match) to 4 (FIFA World Cup™)
Strength of opponent - Position in world ranking (no. 1 = 2.00, no. 30 = 1.70, no. 118 = 0.82 etc.) Formula: [200 minus Position] / 100
Regional strength - Based on results in last three FIFA World Cups (wins per confederation per match)
Period - Since the change to the FIFA World Ranking procedure which came into effect in August 2006 the rankings will no longer take into account the last eight years of results only the last four years of results.
Last four years, gradual decline in importance of results: 100%- 50% - 30% - 20%
Number of matches considered per year - Average points gained from all matches in last 12 months (minimum: 5 matches)