FIFA Ranking: Iran sink to third in Asia

Only a dozen or so international matches have been played, producing no more than a ripple on the latest instalment of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking.

The top 14 positions remain the same as last month, with Argentina, Brazil and Italy all maintaining a fairly comfortable advantage over their pursuers.

Honduras (43rd, up 7) are the biggest movers in the top 50, whereas the highest climbers of the month are to be found in the middle of the ranking, namely Equatorial Guinea (64th, up 14), Oman (86th, up 12), Guyana (113th, up 19) and Grenada (157th, up 11), with the two CONCACAF teams enjoying some success in recent weeks. Equatorial Guinea and Oman, meanwhile, have benefited from the devaluation of matches from last year from which they emerged either empty-handed or did not score highly.

Due to the low level of movement up and down the ranking, the composition of the top 50 also remains unchanged compared to last month: UEFA has 27 teams, whereas Africa, South America, Asia and the CONCACAF countries have nine, six, five and three representatives respectively.

The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 9 April 2008.

Ranking	Team	Pts Mar 08	+/- Ranking Feb 08		+/- Pts Feb 08
1	Argentina	1556	0		38
2	Brazil	1514	0		12
3	Italy	1505	0		21
4	Spain	1355	0		3
5	Germany	1294	0		13
6	Czech Republic	1253	0		9
7	France	1234	0		11
8	Portugal	1206	0		15
9	Netherlands	1179	0		0
10	Greece	1160	0		18
11	England	1142	0		9
12	Croatia	1101	0		5
13	Romania	1060	0		0
14	Scotland	1020	0		30
15	Ghana	1003	-1		13
16	Mexico	990	0		20
17	Cameroon	967	0		0
18	Turkey	924	0		-3
19	Bulgaria	922	0		3
20	Colombia	909	1		10
21	Russia	906	1		16
22	Israel	894	1		16
23	Côte d'Ivoire	886	1		9
24	Poland	885	-4		-18
24	Sweden	885	0		8
26	Paraguay	844	1		-5
27	Norway	843	1		13
28	USA	837	-2		-15
29	Uruguay	829	1		9
30	Egypt	825	-1		0
31	Serbia	815	0		-3
32	Ukraine	814	0		9
33	Denmark	787	0		-8
34	Northern Ireland	763	0		9
35	Finland	730	2		48
36	Japan	702	-1		-45
37	Republic of Ireland	690	-1		-13
38	Australia	666	0		3
39	Chile	658	1		4
40	Switzerland	650	1		3
41	Iran	645	-2		-11
42	Belgium	635	1		-1
43	Honduras	625	7		24
44	Senegal	622	-1		-14
45	Mali	621	1		2
46	Nigeria	618	-1		-13
47	Korea Republic	613	-6		-34
48	Guinea	611	-1		0
49	Morocco	607	-1		2
50	Saudi Arabia	596	0		-5