FIFA Ranking: March 2009 preview (II)

Point totals for teams from the top 20 of the October 2007 ranking should be 100% correct. For the others, there's the issue of historical rankings published before July 2006.

Only one match left until the deadline for the March 2009 ranking: Australia - Kuwait on March 5th - Asian Cup 2011 qualifier. Obviously, these are the only countries that will change their total points as follows: Australia (W: 756, D: 735, L:724), Kuwait (W: 298, D:257, L:236).

Portugal return to the top 10.

Best movers:

16 - Equatorial Guinea
12 - Cyprus and Korea DPR
11 - Norway and Kazakhstan

Worst movers:

-11: Slovakia
-8: Grenada and Nicaragua
-7 - Austria

Lebanon will return to their worst ever ranking - 151st, first achieved in October 2008. Same goes for Mongolia, back to 193rd, first achieved in in December 2002.

Five countries will have their worst ever ranking:

Denmark (38th - 37th in December 2008)
Congo DR (95th - 94th in September 2008)
Zimbabwe (102nd - 101st in August 2007)
United Arab Emirates (115th - 114th in January 2009)
Kuwait (129th - 128th in November 2008)

Best movers in the top 50

11 - Norway
7 - Northern Ireland
6 - Costa Rica
4- Scotland, Colombia, Belgium

Worst movers in the top 50

-11 - Slovakia
-5 - Hungary, Guinea
-4 - Denmark, Lithuania

March 2009 rank - Team - March 2009 points - +/- Ranking - +/- Points

1	Spain	1666	0	-27
2	Germany	1366	0	-37
3	Netherlands	1317	0	-40
4	Italy	1284	0	-34
5	Brazil	1260	0	12
6	Argentina	1219	0	38
7	Croatia	1169	0	-6
8	Russia	1128	1	9
9	England	1083	-1	-53
10	Portugal	1025	2	5
11	Turkey	1010	-1	-30
12	France	1004	-1	-22
13	Czech Republic	998	-1	-22
14	Ukraine	927	0	-5
15	Paraguay	908	0	-15
16	Cameroon	900	0	0
17	USA	896	3	38
18	Israel	887	0	10
19	Greece	863	0	-1
20	Romania	849	-3	-31
21	Uruguay	836	1	-13
22	Switzerland	831	-1	-26
23	Mexico	784	1	-7
24	Nigeria	783	-1	-44
25	Sweden	780	0	0
26	Republic of Ireland	772	3	25
27	Bulgaria	756	-1	-16
28	Scotland	755	4	16
29	Australia	752	-2	-8
30	Poland	747	-2	-7
31	Chile	739	0	-4
32	Costa Rica	728	6	34
33	Egypt	727	-3	-17
34	Ghana	717	1	3
35	Japan	709	2	12
36	Serbia	708	-3	-29
37	Côte d'Ivoire	704	-1	-5
38	Denmark	700	-4	-24
39	Ecuador	695	1	4
40	Honduras	674	-1	-19
41	Morocco	638	0	-18
42	Iran	618	2	-5
42	Northern Ireland	618	7	25
44	Korea Republic	617	2	9
45	Norway	615	11	62
46	Mali	605	1	4
47	Colombia	599	4	15
48	Hungary	595	-5	-34
49	Belgium	591	4	23
50	Guinea	582	-5	-29
51	Panama	578	-1	-8
52	Lithuania	573	-4	-22
53	Slovakia	569	-11	-66
54	Tunisia	560	-1	-8
55	Saudi Arabia	541	0	-14
56	Bolivia	537	1	0
57	Finland	534	4	11
58	Bosnia-Herzegovina	529	1	-6
58	Slovenia	529	-6	-43
60	Senegal	526	0	-8
61	FYR Macedonia	525	-4	-12
62	Congo	507	7	21
63	Gabon	505	0	-9
64	Algeria	501	2	4
65	Venezuela	498	2	6
66	Burkina Faso	495	-4	-25
67	Bahrain	483	7	27
68	Wales	482	-3	-21
69	Uganda	478	2	0
70	Jamaica	476	-6	-32
71	Latvia	471	-4	-21
72	South Africa	469	-2	-16
73	Gambia	465	0	0
74	Uzbekistan	449	-2	-27
75	Trinidad and Tobago	441	3	2
76	Iceland	440	1	-3
77	Peru	431	-1	-21
78	Angola	430	-3	-23
79	New Zealand	424	3	5
80	Albania	421	-1	-14
81	Oman	419	6	19
82	Sudan	412	2	0
83	Iraq	411	2	4
83	Libya	411	-3	-21
85	Rwanda	406	1	0
86	Cyprus	405	12	39
87	Benin	397	-6	-26
88	Belarus	395	2	0
89	Qatar	394	2	6
90	Austria	393	-7	-23
91	Togo	384	-3	-13
92	Zambia	383	0	2
93	Canada	379	-5	-18
94	Mozambique	377	1	5
95	Congo DR	373	-1	0
96	Kenya	367	0	0
97	Syria	366	-1	-1
98	Moldova	362	1	0
99	Cuba	360	-6	-20
100	China PR	354	4	15
101	Ethiopia	348	0	0
102	Zimbabwe	345	-2	-4
103	Tanzania	336	0	-5
104	Fiji	333	1	0
105	Cape Verde Islands	332	1	0
106	El Salvador	328	1	-1
107	Korea DPR	325	12	45
108	Equatorial Guinea	317	16	61
108	Malawi	317	-6	-25
110	Sierra Leone	315	-1	0
111	Georgia	314	-3	-13
112	Montenegro	310	-1	0
113	Guatemala	306	-3	-8
114	Namibia	297	-1	0
115	United Arab Emirates	295	-1	-1
116	Haiti	293	-4	-9
117	Bermuda	292	-1	0
117	Thailand	292	0	7
119	Armenia	285	2	7
120	Botswana	283	-2	0
121	Luxembourg	280	-1	1
122	Grenada	279	-8	-17
123	Antigua and Barbuda	272	-1	7
124	Chad	263	2	17
125	Estonia	259	-3	-6
126	Jordan	257	0	11
127	Guyana	255	6	37
128	Barbados	244	0	2
129	Kazakhstan	243	11	37
129	Kuwait	243	-4	-4
131	Suriname	231	-2	0
132	New Caledonia	229	-2	0
132	Singapore	229	-1	3
134	Azerbaijan	217	2	4
134	Burundi	217	0	0
136	Vietnam	216	-1	0
137	Indonesia	210	0	0
138	Madagascar	209	1	2
139	Swaziland	208	-1	-1
140	Nicaragua	195	-8	-26
141	Hong Kong	181	2	7
142	Liberia	179	-1	0
143	Vanuatu	176	-1	0
143	Yemen	176	3	13
145	Puerto Rico	170	-1	0
146	Malta	169	8	35
147	Niger	168	-2	0
148	Tajikistan	166	-1	4
149	India	156	-1	-5
150	Mauritania	149	0	0
151	Lebanon	145	-2	-5
152	Liechtenstein	144	-1	-3
153	Netherlands Antilles	142	-1	0
154	St. Kitts and Nevis	139	-1	0
155	Kyrgyzstan	134	4	22
156	Turkmenistan	131	-1	0
157	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	130	-1	0
158	Maldives	126	-1	0
159	Myanmar	121	-1	0
160	Eritrea	108	0	0
161	Malaysia	107	0	3
162	Lesotho	105	0	2
163	Solomon Islands	100	0	0
164	Philippines	98	0	0
164	Sri Lanka	98	0	0
166	Pakistan	87	0	-2
167	Chinese Taipei	81	0	-4
168	Cayman Islands	76	0	0
169	Bahamas	74	0	0
170	Laos	73	1	0
171	Seychelles	72	1	0
172	Nepal	70	1	0
173	Mauritius	69	-4	-5
174	Bangladesh	65	0	-3
174	Palestine	65	6	10
176	Samoa	64	-1	0
176	St. Lucia	64	-1	0
178	Belize	62	-1	0
179	Somalia	57	-1	0
180	Cambodia	56	-1	0
181	Turks and Caicos Islands	51	0	0
182	British Virgin Islands	50	0	0
183	Brunei Darussalam	45	0	0
184	Afghanistan	44	0	0
185	Faroe Islands	42	0	0
186	Djibouti	41	0	0
187	Dominican Republic	40	0	0
188	Guinea-Bissau	38	0	0
189	Bhutan	33	0	0
190	Tahiti	32	0	0
190	Tonga	32	0	0
192	Aruba	22	1	0
193	Mongolia	19	-1	-5
194	US Virgin Islands	17	0	0
195	Andorra	14	0	0
196	Dominica	12	0	0
197	Macau	10	0	0
198	Timor-Leste	9	0	0
199	Comoros	8	0	0
200	Central African Republic	4	0	-2
201	American Samoa	0	0	0
201	Anguilla	0	0	0
201	Cook Islands	0	0	0
201	Guam	0	0	0
201	Montserrat	0	0	0
201	Papua New Guinea	0	0	0
201	San Marino	0	0	0

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About me:

Christian, husband, father x 3, programmer, Romanian. Started the blog in March 2007. Quit in April 2018. You can find me on LinkedIn.