MOSCOW, August 16. /TASS/. The Russian national football squad made the biggest jump in the newly published FIFA ranking list of world’s best national teams soaring up 21 ranks to 49th place (1410 points).
Russia dropped to its record low rank of 70 in the FIFA monthly rankings in June. The world’s governing body, FIFA, decided against publishing monthly ratings in July in anticipation of results from the 2018 FIFA World Cup, hosted by Russia between June 14 and July 15.
Today’s FIFA’s new ratings list of national teams was calculated basing on a new ranking formula and is topped by 2018 FIFA World Champions France, also dubbed as ‘Les Bleus.’
"World champions France have climbed to the summit of a much-changed World Ranking in the first edition of the global ladder since the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia and the new ranking formula took effect," the FIFA said in its statement on Thursday.
"The most important thing about the new method is, of course, the table it yields, and in that respect August’s ranking makes for spectacular reading," the statement said. "France (1st, up 6) provide the headline news, as they have reclaimed pole position for the first time in over 16 years, returning to a spot they last held in May 2002."
"The formula, which was approved by the FIFA Council in June after a lengthy period of testing, relies on adding/subtracting points won or lost for a game to/from the previous points total rather than averaging game points over a given time period as in the previous version of the ranking," according to the statement.
"The changes, of which there are several, include the fact that inactive teams now preserve their points totals, with no devaluation of older games," the FIFA stated. "Points are dropped, however, from losing or drawing against weaker opposition, with the only exception to this rule being matches in knockout rounds of major competitions such as the FIFA World Cup."
The top ten of the world’s best national football teams is as follows: 1. France (1726 points); 2. Belgium (1723 points); 3. Brazil (1657 points); 4. Croatia (1643 points); 5. Uruguay (1627 points); 6. England (1615 points); 7. Portugal (1599 points); 8. Switzerland (1597 points); 9. Spain (1580 points); 10. Denmark (1580 points).
"Just three points, however, separate Les Bleus from Russia 2018 semi-finalists Belgium (2nd, up 1), while World Cup runners-up Croatia (4th, up 16) have equaled their record ranking position, last reached in June 2013," the statement said. "Other big movers include Uruguay (5th, up 9), England (6th, up 6), Sweden (13th, up 11) and World Cup hosts Russia (49th, up 21)."
"Naturally, there are losses as well as gains, with the previous leaders Germany (15th, down 14) among several sides to suffer due to group-stage elimination in Russia. Poland (18th, down 10), Peru (20th, down 9) and Costa Rica and Iceland (joint 32nd, down 9 and 10 respectively) have also slipped down the table on the back of disappointing World Cup campaigns at the 2018 FIFA World Cup," the FIFA added in its statement.
The next edition of FIFA’s ranking list is due to be published on July 19, 2018.
This summer Russia hosted its first-ever FIFA World Cup, which kicked off in Moscow with a remarkable opening show at Luzhniki Stadium on the evening of June 14 and ended with a spectacular final match, played also at the Luzhniki Stadium, where France confidently defeated Croatia 4-2 to win the much-coveted World Cup Trophy.
Russia selected 11 host cities to be the venues for the matches of the 2018 World Cup and they were Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Kazan, Saransk, Kaliningrad, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Nizhny Novgorod, Yekaterinburg and Samara.
The national football team of hosts Russia managed to make it to the quarterfinals stage of this world championship, where Croatia edged them out in a 4-3 penalty shootout win on July 7 at the Fisht Arena in Sochi.