FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings July 2010

The rankings have been adjusted, and Spain are the best football team in the World. Now that you know how it's all worked out, let's look at how the World Cup has affected the international standings of the teams. There've been some big movers – up and down. Surprisingly, England have maintained their good position, but that's probably thanks to several other teams losing out – and their great qualifiers for the cup.

The fastest risers
The top three World Cup teams to rise in the rankings are:

• New Zealand. They rose 24 places from 78 to 54. They are, in fact, the most improved team worldwide since May.
  
• South Africa. Since France had such a good world ranking (9) their defeat of the team shot them up 17 places from 83 to 66, although they are still the second-worst team in the competition (ahead of North Korea).
  
• Paraguay. Escaping from the group stages and beating Italy lifts them 15 places from 31 to a comfortable 16.

The freefallers Sadly, a lot of teams in the World Cup also did a lot worse than expected:

• Cameroon. The Africans failed to live up to expectations by losing badly. They dropped a massive 21 places from 19 to 40.
  
• France. Unsurprisingly, the World Cup finalists from 2006 lost a lot of points from their defeat by South Africa. They dropped 12 places from 9 to 21.
  
• Nigeria. They tried, but they still fell from 21 to 30.

I'm surprised you did so well Several teams were lucky not to be dropped further in the rankings, or even rose.

• Italy only dropped six places, from 5 to 11.
  
• England rose a place, from 8 to 7.
  
• North Korea went up two places, from 105 to 103.

Hey, what happened?

• Portugal dropped 5 places from 3 to 8, probably caused by other teams rising rather than their falling (although North Korea's terrible ranking wouldn't have given them many points from that game)

What are you doing up here? They weren't in the World Cup, but Egypt deserve a special mention for being ranked 9th. Not only that, but they've risen three places since May. Weird.