Brazil Back on Top of FIFA Rankings; Switzerland, Poland Enter Top 5
Brazil have returned to the top of the FIFA world rankings in the latest update for August, moving ahead of Confederations Cup winners Germany despite neither nation actually playing any games since the July rankings were released a month ago.
Argentina have held steady at third, while Switzerland have risen one place to fourth. It is not an all-time high for the Swiss squad, having been up to third in the early history of the official rankings in 1993, but Poland's move into fifth place is an all-time high for them.
The Poles have won five competitive games in a row since October of last year and haven't lost a game of any kind in 90 minutes since a narrow defeat at the hands of the Netherlands in a pre-Euro 2016 warm-up just over 14 months ago.
Euro 2016 winners and Confederations Cup semi-finalists Portugal have fallen out of the top five into sixth, while Chile, Colombia, Belgium and France make up the rest of the top 10.
Having dominated the world between 2008 and 2012, Spain currently sit 11th, with Italy in 12th place and England still 13th. Iceland just about remain in the top 20 after falling a single place from 19th, with Wales rising two places up to 18th since last month.
The United States are the biggest risers in the top 30 after jumping nine places to 26th, although still remain behind Iran and Egypt in 24th and 25th place respectively.
The Netherlands have fallen four more places to 36th, their lowest ever ranking. The Dutch famously failed to qualify for Euro 2016 and have won fewer than half of their last 11 games.
The biggest risers in the world are Namibia after 20 places to joint 136th, while Curacao (pictured below) are the planet's worst fallers after slumping 18 places to joint 86th.
Anguilla, Bahamas, Eritrea, Gibraltar, Somalia and Tonga jointly occupy last place, 206th.
FIFA Rankings Top 30 in Full (August 2017):
Rank | County | Change |
1 | Brazil | Up 1 |
2 | Germany | Down 1 |
3 | Argentina | - |
4 | Switzerland | Up 1 |
5 | Poland | Up 1 |
6 | Portugal | Down 2 |
7 | Chile | - |
8 | Colombia | - |
9 | Belgium | Up 1 |
10 | France | Down 1 |
11 | Spain | - |
12 | Italy | - |
13 | England | - |
14 | Mexico | Up 2 |
15 | Peru | Down 1 |
16 | Croatia | Down 1 |
17 | Uruguay | - |
18 | Wales | Up 2 |
19 | Sweden | Down 1 |
20 | Iceland | Down 1 |
21 | Costa Rica | Up 5 |
22 | Slovakia | Down 1 |
23 | Northern Ireland | Down 1 |
24 | Iran | Down 1 |
25 | Egypt | Down 1 |
26 | USA | Up 9 |
27 | Ukraine | Down 2 |
28 | DR Congo | - |
29 | Republic of Ireland | - |
30 | Bosnia & Herzegovina | - |
