ZURICH: In the last edition of the year of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, the top 20 remains unchanged. World champions Germany top the table again with a comfortable lead over Argentina and Colombia, followed by Belgium, the Netherlands and Brazil.

It is only the second time since 1993 that the Germans have topped the table at the end of the year, securing them the title of Team of the Year for 2014.

They also win the title of Best Mover of the Year, thanks to their gain of 407 points over the last year, more than any other team. Other teams that can look back with satisfaction on a successful year are Slovakia (21st, up 334 points) and Belgium (4th, up 319 points).

There have been some interesting changes in the composition of the top 50 over the course of the year. Of the confederations, this year’s winners are Europe (with 30 teams in the top 50, up 4) and Africa (11 teams, up 2), while CONMEBOL (6 teams), CONCACAF (3) and the AFC (0) all have two teams fewer in the top 50 than last year.

The AFC has dropped out of the top 50 altogether, and the OFC are also not represented. The best-ranked teams by confederation are Germany (1st), Argentina (2nd), Costa Rica (16th), Algeria (18th), Iran (51st) and New Zealand (134th).

There have been only 17 international “A” matches to take into account since the November ranking, bringing the total number of matches taken into account in 2014 to 834. More than half of those matches were friendlies (468), plus 302 qualifying matches for continental final competitions and 64 World Cup matches.

Further data from 2014 can be found in the attached document.

The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 8 January 2015.

Click here to view the complete ranking.
To find out more about the calculation of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking click here.

Summary

Leader Germany (unchanged)
Moves into top ten none
Moves out of top ten none
Matches played in total 17
Most matches played Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam (4 games each)
Biggest move by points Rwanda (up 127 points)
Biggest move by ranks Rwanda (up 22 ranks)
Biggest drop by points Cuba (down 152 points)
Biggest drop by ranks Cuba (down 34 ranks)

 

Awards 2014 English (PDF)