FIFA World Rankings May 2008

Argentina top the rankings and the 2010 South American qualifying group, Brazil are second and Italy third with Spain in 4th. England stay at 11th.

Japan have dropped one place to 37th position. South Korea stay in 50th position.

The USA stay at 21st. Croatia are unchanged in 13th. Scotland are in 15th position. The Republic of Ireland go up one spot to 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)