Poland climb the FIFA World Ranking ahead of national teams’ reawakening
ZURICH: National team football emerges from its winter slumbers in the next fortnight after an effective close season in which only two friendly matches impacted on the March edition of the FIFA World Ranking.
The top five is unaltered, with Germany still on top, while Poland (sixth, up one) are the only movers in the top 20, having climbed into joint-sixth position alongside Spain. That rise leaves the World Cup-bound Poles just one place short of their best-ever ranking position.
Further down, and while the likes of Northern Ireland (24th, up two), Austria (28th, up one) and Jamaica (49th, up one) have all edged up the order, only one team in the top 50 – the Czech Republic (43rd, up three) – have made a jump of three or more places.
The biggest climbers overall, meanwhile, are Andorra (130th, up seven), who are now five spots away from equalling their best-ever position.
However, the scarcity of recent matches means that there are no new entries into the top 50, and that the regional composition of that group remains unchanged, with UEFA accounting for 30 of the top 50 teams, ahead of CONMEBOL (9), CAF (5), CONCACAF (4), AFC (2) and OFC (0).
The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 12 April 2018.
Click here to view the complete ranking.
To find out more about the calculation of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking click here
Moves into top 10 None
Moves out of top 10 None
Matches played in total 2
Most matches played Saudi Arabia (2 matches)
Biggest move by points Burkina Faso (up 21 points)
Biggest move by ranks Andorra (up 7 ranks)
Biggest drop by points Azerbaijan (down 32 points)
Biggest drop by ranks Azerbaijan (down 8 ranks)
Newly ranked teams None
Teams that are no longer ranked None
Inactive teams, not ranked None
