FIFA World Rankings January 2008

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Argentina are still top of the rankings following three wins in 2010 South American qualifying matches, Brazil are second and Italy third with Spain in 4th. England are now out of the tournment after their defeat to Russia and losing to Croatia in Euro 2008 qualifying.

Japan are still at 34th position. South Korea go up one place to 41st position.

The USA drop a place to 20th. Croatia are still 10th after their good results in Euro 2008 qualifying. Scotland are still in 14th position. The Republic of Ireland stay in 32nd.

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)