FIFA World Rankings July 2008

Spain top the rankings after triumph at Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland. Argentina drop from first to sixth place after two draws in the 2010 South American qualifying group, Brazil are fourth and Italy third. England drop to 9th.

Japan have moved up to 34th position. South Korea drop to 53th position.

The USA drop nine spots to 30th. Croatia are in 7th. Scotland are in 16th position. The Republic of Ireland go up one spot to 41st.

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)