FIFA World Rankings August 2008

Spain remain at the top of the rankings with Germany in second place, having forced Italy down to third. Argentina drop from sixth to seventh place. Brazil drops to sixth, and the Netherlands has climbed from sixth to fifth. England drop to 14.

Japan has moved a rung down to 35th position. South Korea remains at 53rd position.

The USA drop one rank to 31st. Croatia climb two to 5th. Scotland remain in 16th position. The Republic of Ireland remain in 41st.

Source: www.fifa.com

How the rankings are calculated

Match Result: - Win-Draw-Defeat = 3 points - 1 points – 0 points
Importance of match - 1 (friendly match) to 4 (FIFA World Cup™)
Strength of opponent - Position in world ranking (no. 1 = 2.00, no. 30 = 1.70, no. 118 = 0.82 etc.) Formula: [200 minus Position] / 100
Regional strength - Based on results in last three FIFA World Cups (wins per confederation per match)
Period - Since the change to the FIFA World Ranking procedure which came into effect in August 2006 the rankings will no longer take into account the last eight years of results only the last four years of results.
Last four years, gradual decline in importance of results: 100%- 50% - 30% - 20%
Number of matches considered per year - Average points gained from all matches in last 12 months (minimum: 5 matches)