FIFA World Rankings June 2008

Argentina top the rankings and are well-placed in the 2010 South American qualifying group, Brazil are second and Italy third with Spain in 4th. England move up to 9th.

Japan have dropped one place to 38th position. South Korea move up to 45th position.

The USA stay at 21st. Croatia are in 15th. Scotland are in 17th position. The Republic of Ireland go down one spot to 42nd.

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)

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