FIFA World Rankings February 2010

Spain retains its top spot, just ahead of Brazil. The Netherlands are in 3rd place followed by Italy, Portugal and Germany. England maintains its ranking of 9th best team in the world, with Argentina one place ahead of them in 8th.

Egypt jumped into the top ten - ranked at exactly 10th - thanks to its performance in the Africa Cup of Nations.

Japan moves up three spots to 40th. Likewise, South Korea also jumps up three places to land in 49th position.

The USA stays in 14th. Scotland are in 46th position. The Republic of Ireland drop a bit 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)