Iran fall to 47 in FIFA World Ranking

Appearing in only their second World Cup, the Australians advanced to the Round of 16 where they were unfortunate to go out to a controversial stoppage-time penalty against eventual champions Italy.

On the back of that strong showing, the Socceroos jumped nine spots in the world ranking to 33rd, making them the highest placed Asian side in the revised FIFA table, which was released on Wednesday.

FIFA announced last week that a new procedure for drawing up the world ranking had been developed by a multinational group comprising FIFA staff and external experts.

The new method used to calculate the ranking introduces major changes in point allocation and shortens the evaluation period from 96 to 48 months, with more recent results given a greater weightage in points.

While Australia have benefited from the new system, a number of the other top sides in Asia including the continent’s four other representatives at the World Cup, all of whom bowed out during the group stage, have dropped significantly in the ranking.

Iran remain Asia’s second best side although they have fallen 24 spots in the world ranking to No.47 while Asian Cup holders Japan are down 31 spots to 49th.

Rank	Team	Pts: Jul 06	+/-Rank May 06	+/-Pts: May 06
1	Brazil	1630	0	803
2	Italy	1550	11	822
3	Argentina	1472	6	726
4	France	1462	4	713
5	England	1434	5	693
6	Netherlands	1322	-3	554
7	Spain	1309	-2	553
8	Portugal	1301	-1	551
9	Germany	1229	10	533
10	Czech Republic	1223	-8	451
11	Nigeria	1149	0	413
12	Cameroon	1109	3	387
13	Switzerland	1028	22	380
14	Uruguay	985	8	296
15	Ukraine	961	30	352
16	USA	933	-11	177
17	Denmark	927	-6	191
18	Mexico	924	-14	166
19	Paraguay	915	14	262
20	Côte d'Ivoire	909	12	240
Rank	Team	Pts: Jul 06	+/-Rank May 06	+/-Pts: May 06
21	Colombia	902	6	221
22	Sweden	886	-6	177
23	Croatia	854	0	168
24	Guinea	850	27	253
25	Ghana	839	23	239
26	Romania	834	-1	149
27	Turkey	824	-13	98
28	Ecuador	821	11	190
29	Egypt	819	-12	111
30	Poland	809	-1	132
31	Tunisia	805	-10	112
32	Greece	780	-12	86
33	Australia	738	9	126
34	Russia	733	3	88
35	Senegal	726	-7	47
36	Serbia and Montenegro	724	8	114
37	Bulgaria	716	0	71
38	Honduras	695	4	83
39	Republic of Ireland	694	-8	23
40	Morocco	681	-4	35
Rank	Team	Pts: Jul 06	+/-Rank May 06	+/-Pts: May 06
41	Scotland	677	18	101
42	Peru	661	24	111
43	Bosnia-Herzegovina	660	20	99
44	Slovakia	659	-3	46
45	Costa Rica	636	-19	-47
46	Chile	630	18	73
47	Iran	624	-24	-62
48	Togo	622	13	53
49	Japan	615	-31	-90
50	Uzbekistan	606	10	35
51	Israel	605	-2	6
52	Norway	604	-12	-23
53	Guatemala	587	9	22
54	Canada	567	29	52
55	Angola	564	2	-17
56	Korea Republic	557	-27	-120
57	Belgium	555	-1	-27
58	Wales	547	16	9
59	Panama	522	22	-1
60	Austria	506	19	-25