IRNA - Brazil still tops the latest FIFA world rankings although the 2002 World Cup winner was held to a draw by Peru in the latest round of World Cup qualifiers.
France, Spain, and Argentina are following Brazil. Defeats in Euro 2004 playoffs and friendly internationals saw the Netherlands down to sixth, England to 8th, Germany to 9th, and Italy to 11th.
As a result, Mexico, which has not played an international this month, moved up three places to fifth.
Scotland improved by eight to 50th to return to the top 50 for the first time in almost two years thanks to its 1-0 victory over the Netherlands. An impressive win over Turkey also led to a meteoric rise up the rankings for Latvia, up 13 to 56th.
Iran leaped seven places, standing 35th in the world with 620 points and fourth after South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Japan.
Winning 657 points, South Korea retained its position, 22nd, Saudi Arabia moved up four places to 26th, and Nippon dropped three spots to 28th.
Top 30 rankings come below:
1. Brazil 852 pts
2. France 826
3. Spain 785
4. Argentina 750
5. Mexico 742
6. Holland 740
7. Turkey 739
8. England 738
9. Germany 736
10. Czech Republic 735
11. Italy 733
12. USA 732
13. Denmark 714
14. Cameroon 712
15. Ireland 706
16. Belgium 696
17. Sweden 681
18. Portugal 680
19. Costa Rica 679
20. Croatia 662
Uruguay 662
22. South Korea 657
23. Paraguay 654
24. Poland 652
Romania 652
26. Saudi Arabia 649
27. Slovenia 645
28. Japan 643
29. Russia 638
30. Greece 637
Note: FIFA`s standings are based on a statistical analysis of countries` results over eight years, weighted according to how recently the matches were played, the strength of the opponents and the importance of each match.
