FIFA World Rankings facts for kids

Top 30 Rankings as of 10 December 2020
Rank	Change	Team	Points
1		Belgium	1780
2		France	1755
3		Brazil	1743
4		England	1670
5		Portugal	1662
6		Spain	1645
7		Argentina	1642
8		Uruguay	1639
9		Mexico	1632
10		Italy	1625
11		Croatia	1617
12		Denmark	1614
13		Germany	1610
14		Netherlands	1609
15		Colombia	1601
16		Switzerland	1593
17		Chile	1567
18		Wales	1562
19		Poland	1559
20		Senegal	1558
20		Sweden	1558

The FIFA World Rankings is a ranking of men's football teams selected by FIFA. Currently, the team ranked #1 is Belgium. The rankings were first made in 1993. The first team to receive first place was Germany.

A points system is used, with points being awarded based on the results of all FIFA-recognized full international matches.

FIFA announced in June 2018 that the ranking system would be updated following the 2018 World Cup. The calculation method to be adopted will be closely modeled after the Elo rating system and rankings of its member associations will be updated on a game-by-game basis. The weighting designated for each confederation for ranking purposes was removed. However, the new method does not account for home or away games and margin of the victory, unlike the Elo rankings. This produced a more altered ranking table, with Germany falling to 15th and 2018 World Cup champions France moving to the top of the ranking.

Men's rank leaders

FIFA World Men's Ranking Leaders

When the system was created, Germany began as the top-ranked team following their dominant period in which they had reached the three previous FIFA World Cup finals, winning one of them. Brazil took the lead in the run up to the 1994 FIFA World Cup after winning eight and losing only one of nine qualification matches, while on the way scoring twenty goals and conceding just four. Italy then led for a short time on the back of their own equally successful World Cup qualifying campaign, after which the top place was re-claimed by Germany.

Brazil's success in their 1993 qualifying campaign returned them to the lead for a brief period. Germany led again during the 1994 World Cup, until Brazil's victory in that competition gave them a large lead that would stand up for nearly seven years, until they were surpassed by a strong France team that captured both the 1998 FIFA World Cup and the 2000 UEFA Euro.

Success at the 2002 FIFA World Cup restored Brazil to the top position, where they remained until February 2007, when Italy returned to the top for the first time since 1993 following their 2006 FIFA World Cup win in Germany. Just one month later, Argentina replaced them, reaching the top for the first time, but Italy regained its place in April. After winning the Copa América 2007 in July, Brazil returned to the top, but were replaced by Italy in September and then Argentina in October.

In July 2008, Spain took over the lead for the first time, having won UEFA Euro 2008. Brazil began a sixth stint at the top of the rankings in July 2009 after winning the 2009 Confederations Cup, and Spain regained the title in November 2009 after winning every match in qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

In April 2010, Brazil returned to the top of the table. After winning the 2010 World Cup, Spain regained the top position and held it until August 2011, when the Netherlands reached the top spot for the first time, only to drop it the following month.

In July 2014, Germany took over the lead once again, having won the 2014 FIFA World Cup. In July 2015, Argentina reached the top spot for the first time since 2008, after reaching both the 2014 FIFA World Cup Final, as well as the 2015 Copa America Final. In November 2015, Belgium became the leader in the FIFA rankings for the first time, after topping their Euro 2016 qualifying group. Belgium led the rankings until April 2016, when Argentina returned to the top. Brazil returned to the No. 1 spot in April 2017 for the first time since just prior to the 2010 World Cup, because they had already qualified for the 2018 World Cup as they were 1st in their qualification group with 4 match days still left to go. However, Germany regained the top spot in July after winning the Confederations Cup.

In the summer of 2018, FIFA updated their rating system by adopting the Elo rating system. The first ranking list with this system, in August 2018, saw France retake the top spot for the first time after nearly 16 years, having won the 2018 FIFA World Cup. One month later, for the first time, two teams were both leaders as Belgium reached the same ranking as France. This lasted only one month, and from September 2018 until now (as of April 2020^[update]), Belgium is leading the FIFA ranking.

Awards

Team of the year

Year	First place	Second place	Third place
1993	Germany (1)	Italy	Brazil
1994	Brazil (1)	Spain	Sweden
1995	Brazil (2)	Germany	Italy
1996	Brazil (3)	Germany	France
1997	Brazil (4)	Germany	Czech Republic
1998	Brazil (5)	France	Germany
1999	Brazil (6)	Czech Republic	France
2000	Brazil (7)	France	Argentina
2001	France (1)	Argentina	Brazil
2002	Brazil (8)	France	Spain
2003	Brazil (9)	France	Spain
2004	Brazil (10)	France	Argentina
2005	Brazil (11)	Czech Republic	Netherlands
2006	Brazil (12)	Italy	Argentina
2007	Argentina (1)	Brazil	Italy
2008	Spain (1)	Germany	Netherlands
2009	Spain (2)	Brazil	Netherlands
2010	Spain (3)	Netherlands	Germany
2011	Spain (4)	Netherlands	Germany
2012	Spain (5)	Germany	Argentina
2013	Spain (6)	Germany	Argentina
2014	Germany (2)	Argentina	Colombia
2015	Belgium (1)	Argentina	Spain
2016	Argentina (2)	Brazil	Germany
2017	Germany (3)	Brazil	Portugal
2018	Belgium (2)	France	Brazil
2019	Belgium (3)	France	Brazil
2020	Belgium (4)	France	Brazil

Performance by team

Team	First place	Second place	Third place	Top 3
Brazil	12	4	5	21
Spain	6	1	3	10
Belgium	4	0	0	4
Germany	3	6	4	13
Argentina	2	3	5	10
France	1	8	2	11
Netherlands	0	2	3	5
Italy	0	2	2	4
Czech Republic	0	2	1	3
Portugal	0	0	1	1
Colombia	0	0	1	1
Sweden	0	0	1	1

Best Mover of the Year

The Best Mover of the Year was awarded to the team who made the best progress up the rankings over the course of the year. In the FIFA rankings, this is not simply the team that has risen the most places, but a calculation is performed in order to account for the fact that it becomes progressively harder to earn more points the higher up the rankings a team is.

The calculation used is the number of points the team has at the end of the year (z) multiplied by the number of points it earned during the year (y). The team with the highest index on this calculation received the award. The table below shows the top three best movers from each year.

The award has not been an official part of the awards since 2006.

Year	First place	Second place	Third place
1993	Colombia	Portugal	Morocco
1994	Croatia	Brazil	Uzbekistan
1995	Jamaica	Trinidad and Tobago	Czech Republic
1996	South Africa	Paraguay	Canada
1997	Yugoslavia	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Iran
1998	Croatia	France	Argentina
1999	Slovenia	Cuba	Uzbekistan
2000	Nigeria	Honduras	Cameroon
2001	Costa Rica	Australia	Honduras
2002	Senegal	Wales	Brazil
2003	Bahrain	Oman	Turkmenistan
2004	China	Uzbekistan	Ivory Coast
2005	Ghana	Ethiopia	Switzerland
2006	Italy	Germany	France

While an official award has not been made for movements since 2006, FIFA has released a list of the 'Best Movers' in the rankings since 2007.

Year	Best mover	Second best	Third best
2007	Mozambique	Norway	New Caledonia
2008	Spain	Montenegro	Russia
2009	Brazil	Algeria	Slovenia
2010	Netherlands	Montenegro	Botswana
2011	Wales	Sierra Leone	Bosnia and Herzegovina
2012	Colombia	Ecuador	Mali
2013	Ukraine	Armenia	United States
2014	Germany	Slovakia	Belgium
2015	Turkey	Hungary	Nicaragua
2016	France	Peru	Poland
2017	Denmark	Sweden	Bolivia
2018	France	Uruguay	Kosovo
2019	Qatar	Algeria	Japan
2019	Hungary	Ecuador	Malta

See also

In Spanish: Clasificación mundial de la FIFA para niños