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The new FIFA world rankings of national teams for the month of December have been announced, and they will be the last ones of this year. After a long break, Lithuania has returned to the top 100, moving up three places and sharing 100th place with Panama.
As usual, there have been no changes in the top three teams, so for the third consecutive year, the strongest team on the planet is Brazil, followed by France in second and Argentina in third. The Czech Republic has moved up to fourth place, while Mexico has jumped to seventh place, overtaking England.
Meanwhile, the positions of Lithuania's opponents in the qualifiers for the 2006 World Cup have changed depending on their results: Spain dropped to fifth place, Belgium from 38th to 45th, Serbia rose 8 places to 46th, Bosnia remained 79th, and San Marino improved by two positions to 164th.
On the other hand, Lithuania's neighbors had mixed results in the rankings - Latvia moved up 2 places to 65th, while Estonia dropped 5 places to 81st.
So far this year, there have been 1019 matches played in football stadiums around the world, and with approximately 30 more matches expected to be played, it is likely that the all-time record of 1044 matches (set in 2000) will be surpassed. The next FIFA world rankings will be announced on January 19th.
FIFA world national team rankings:
(Place, country, points, in parentheses - place in the previous rankings)
1. Brazil 843 (1) 2. France 792 (2) 3. Argentina 785 (3) 4. Czech Republic 777 (5) 5. Spain 765 (4) 6. Netherlands 758 (6) 7. Mexico 753 (8) 8. England 752 (7) 9. Portugal 747 (8) 10. Italy 738 (10) ... 45. Belgium 600 (38) 46. Serbia and Montenegro 599 (54) ... 65. Latvia 560 (67) ... 79. Bosnia and Herzegovina 526 (79) ... 81. Estonia 525 (76) ... 100. Lithuania 472 (103) 100. Panama 472 (101) ... 164. San Marino 221 (166)
