Brazil continues slide on FIFA ranking

The FIFA has released their newest rankings for the month with some interesting movements up and down the table. In truth there are no significant changes between this month’s release and that of July 2012.

The monthly FIFA rankings are released with teams ranking points from results of matches they have played as well as the quality of opposition they have played.

Spain maintains their lead on the table with 1605 points while second placed Germany trail with 131 points off the leaders. The first change on the log starts on numbers 3 and 4 which is England and Uruguay. England was on fourth place but have toppled the Uruguay to take their 3^rd place while Uruguay step into fourth. That is the only change in the first ten as Portugal, Italy, Argentina, Netherlands, Croatia and Denmark all maintain their positions from 5^th to 10^th respectively.

Drama continues in 11^th place where Brazil fell two places downwards switching places with Russia leaving Greece separating the two. France, Chile, Cote D’Ivoire and Sweden also maintain their places trailing Brazil in 13^th position with 991 points. Ecuador climbed 7 places to take 20^th position while Hungary also climbed three places from a previous 31^st position last month finishing 28^th this time.

Of notable concern is the fall of 5 time world cup winners Brazil whose slide is evident from the rankings. The reason is they have played lesser top level matches in recent times and while they are currently in the finals of the Olympic football event for men, they might not receive a significant improvement in their ranking in the coming month as performance in the Olympics is not added to the monthly ranking.

Aside Cote D’Ivoire in the first twenty, African countries dominated the thirties; with Ghana in 32^nd position. Algeria is in 34^th position while Libya is in 38, 2 places below the US. Mali follows in 39^th place with Egypt and Tunisia trailing. African Nations Cup winners Zambia are in 44^th place while Sierra Leone went 8 places upwards to finish in 57^th place toppling Nigeria that finished in 58^th position.