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swamp_Thing :
So the official ranks have been updated:
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England have risen one place to seventh in Fifa's official world rankings, despite their poor showing at the recent World Cup in South Africa.
(Your guess is as good as mine...)
BBC article
Rankings table
Saw that too. Definitely a puzzler. It covers the period from May 10th until now, so that gain in points is from these results. Also shown are the world rankings of their opponents at the time of the games (England were 8th)
England 3 - 1 Mexico (17)
England 2 - 1 Japan (45)
England 1 - 1 USA (14)
England 0 - 0 Algeria (30)
England 1 - 0 Slovenia (25)
England 1 - 4 Germany (6)
So seems like they got their points for beating Mexico and Japan in meaningless warm-up friendlies. The main reason they climbed I think would be the relative failings of Portugal and Italy. Had they both had a better tournament, England would have dropped one place instead. Then there's 2 big names (Russia and Croatia) who were good enough to go to the World Cup (Russia beaten in the playoffs, Croatia pipped by Ukraine in the groups). Russia especially I think would have given a good showing. Then there's France, who should have had a much better tournament, and may have climbed as a result.
Bottom line of the story - Scotland climbed two places! Woo!
