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FIFA World Rankings January 2009

The top three teams in the world in the first month of 2009 are Euro 2008 kings Spain at the top with Germany in second place and the Netherlands in third. Italy are down one again in fourth. Brazil are fifth, Argentina are sixth. England are in 8th after impressive results in World Cup qualifying and a recent friendly win in Germany.

Japan are in 34th position. South Korea stay in 42nd position.

The USA remain at 22nd. Scotland stay in 33rd position. The Republic of Ireland are up one to 37th position.

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)