Brazil still ranked FIFA's No. 1 despite Argentina winning the World Cup

Brazil still ranked FIFA’s No. 1 despite Argentina winning the World Cup

Brazil retain their number 1 FIFA ranking position despite Argentina winning the World Cup

(Football news) Argentina, despite being crowned World Champions, will not take over at the top of the FIFA’s World Ranking this month after they defeated France and went on to win their first World Cup since 1986. Their South American rivals Brazil have held the No. 1 position since February but even though the Selecao failed to make it past the quarterfinals, Argentina’s results haven’t been enough to overtake them. Brazil won three games at the World Cup as they lost to Cameroon and suffered a penalty shootout defeat at the hands of Croatia.

Argentina on the other hand won four games, lost one to Saudi Arabia and were twice victorious on penalties including the dramatic final on Sunday as they beat France 4-2 on penalties. Argentina also won the Copa America in 2021 and are now world champions, but it’s still not enough for the No. 1 spot in the FIFA rankings. Shootout successes are worth far fewer points than regulation-time wins. If either Argentina or France had won the final inside 120 minutes then they would have gone to No. 1, but a penalty shootout guaranteed that Brazil could not be overtaken at least.

Argentina and France both moved up one place into second and third respectively, while Belgium went down two places to fourth after failing to get out of the group stage. England stayed in fifth, while Netherlands climbed up two places into sixth. Croatia’s run to a third-place finish at the World Cup saw them as the biggest climbers into the top 10. Italy, who failed to make it to Qatar, dropped two spots to eighth as Portugal are unchanged in ninth, with Spain going down three places to 10th.

The biggest climbers in this current FIFA rankings were Morocco and Australia, who rose 11 places. Both countries massively exceeded everyone’s expectation as Morocco is now the highest ranked African team in 11th and Australia, which made the round of 16 moved up to 27th. It’s still not Morocco’s highest-ever ranking, as they were 10th in 1998, but as recently as in 2015 they were as low as 92nd. Cameroon also enjoyed a big rise of 10 places up to 33rd, thanks to their win over Brazil. The United States jumped up three places into 13th as Mexico fell two places into 15th. Canada and Qatar are the biggest fallers, both dropping 12 places into 53rd and 62nd respectively. Wales also slumped nine spots into 28th; Denmark are down eight into 18th and Serbia drop eight to 29th.

New FIFA Ranking top 20: