There are very few changes to report on the May edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, with the results of only three matches taken into account. The top 17 positions are unaltered from last month, which means that Germany (1st, unchanged) continue to lead the way ahead of Argentina (2nd, unchanged) and Belgium (3rd, unchanged).
The three games in question were friendlies between USA and Mexico (2-0) and Suriname and Guyana (1-0), as well as the abandoned UEFA EURO 2016 qualifier between Russia (27th, up 5) and Montenegro (75th, down 5) on 27 March, which has now been declared as a 3-0 victory for Russia.
Other teams have benefited from the devaluation of past matches, such as St Vincent and the Grenadines (110th, up 6), St Lucia (131st, up 5), Suriname (155th, up 14) and Dominica (165th, up 12). Although they have only made slight climbs, both Wales (21st, up 1) and Timor-Leste (151st, up 1) are now in their highest-ever positions.
There has also been no change to the regional composition of the top 50: UEFA has 29 teams, whereas CAF has ten, CONMEBOL has six, CONCACAF has three, the AFC has two, and the OFC has none.
Positions 48 (Cameroon, 627 points) to 52 (Turkey, 603 points) are separated by only 24 points, however, so there may well be changes in this part of the table next month. A total of 220 international ‘A’ matches have been evaluated so far this year.
The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 4 June 2015.
Summary