GENEVA, July 18. /TASS/. The Russian national football team remained in the 33rd place of the FIFA World Ranking, according to the list published by the world’s governing body of football on Thursday.

Russia played its most recent match on June 7 against Belarus winning that friendly encounter 4-0. The Russian national football squad is currently ranked 33rd with 1506.58 points.

The FIFA World Ranking is still topped by Argentina (1901.48 points), which is followed by France in 2nd place (1854.91) and Spain in 3rd place (1835.67).

"Having successfully defended their CONMEBOL Copa America crown, Argentina (1st) tighten their grip at the top of the pile," FIFA's press office said in a statement. "France (2nd) are still their closest challengers, after reaching the semi-finals of UEFA EURO 2024. Newly crowned European champions Spain (3rd, up 5) have yet more reason to celebrate after hauling themselves into the top three of the ranking, while beaten finalists England (4th, up 1) are just behind the leading pack, having leapfrogged Brazil (5th, down 1)."

"Belgium (6th, down 3) now find themselves outside the top five, with the Netherlands (7th) and Portugal (8th, down 2) just behind them," the statement continued. "Colombia (9th, up 3) may find solace in their creditable return to the top ten despite a narrow defeat to the Albiceleste in the Copa America decider, while Italy (10th) stay as they were."

The next edition of the FIFA World Rankings will be published on September 19, 2024.

Russia’s football ban

The International Association Football Federation (FIFA) announced on February 28, 2022 that the Russian national team and all professional clubs representing the country were barred from taking part in FIFA tournaments.

In turn, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) made a similar decision in regard to the Russian national football team’s participation in UEFA tournaments.

Both FIFA and UEFA cited Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine as grounds for their respective bans on Russian teams’ participation in competitions.

Since sanctions were introduced, the Russian national football squad has played a host of friendlies against other countries, namely against Kyrgyzstan (2-1), Tajikistan (0-0), Uzbekistan (0-0), Iran (1-1), Iraq (2-0), Cameroon (1-0), Kenya (2-2), Cuba (8-0), Serbia (4-0) and Belarus (4-0).