Singapore ranked 129th wor..There has been a change in the leadership of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, with the Netherlands ending Spain’s reign of more than a year at the summit to claim top spot for the first time ever.
The Oranje thus profited from Spain’s defeat by Italy – in a friendly that cost the world and European champions valuable points – to become only the seventh team (after Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy and Spain) to sit atop the global ladder.
There has also been a dramatic change in South America, with fifth-placed Uruguay becoming the top-ranked South American team following Brazil’s (6th, down 2) loss to Germany (3rd, unchanged). England also reaped the rewards of A Seleção’s defeat to move up two places to fourth.
Also inside the top 50, Russia (13th, up 5), Nigeria (38th, up 5) and Algeria (46th, up 6) are the biggest gainers. Like the Dutch, Mongolia (160th, up 3) have achieved their highest position since the introduction of the FIFA Coca-Cola World Ranking.
Seventy-six 'A' matches have been held in the past few weeks, 60 of which were friendlies. Fifteen games were Asian Zone qualifiers for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™, and one was a UEFA EURO 2012 preliminary.
For this edition of the world ranking, the confederation weighting for the AFC has been increased from 0.85 to 0.86 backdated to August 2010, after a review of the confederation weighting calculation found that 0.86 is the correct figure. This alteration has led to only minimal changes for a few teams, and would have had no impact whatsoever on the seedings for the Preliminary Draw for Brazil 2014 on 30 July.
Having held the position for more than a year, a friendly loss to Italy means the world and European champions have been replaced by the Oranje, who become just the seventh team to head the rankings.
Uruguay's Copa America success means they are now the top South American side in fifth, with Brazil dropping down to sixth.
Germany remain in third and England move up to fourth, while the make-up of the top 10 remains the same, with Italy, Portugal, Argentina and Croatia the other sides.
The Republic of Ireland mirror England in moving up two places, in their case to 31st, while Scotland are up six to 55th and Northern Ireland up three to 59th.
Wales' ranking does slide, though, with Gary Speed's men dropping five places to 117th, with Haiti moving above them in the standings.
