FIFA/Coca-Cola Rankings Adjustment October 2010

Armenia are amazing!

There is only one team in Europe that really stands out as improving, and one team that have really lost places. Here's the summary of what happened:

1. Armenia: +45 places following their two victories. They're up to 60th, and only just behind Scotland. This is their highest ever FIFA ranking!

2. Russia: +15 places thanks to their defeats of Israel and Macedonia. Up to 10th!

3. Montenegro: Montenegro: +14 places to 26th. They did fantastically well in group G, having defeated all their opponents except England. Once England have played against Wales then they should be equal top of the group.

4. Azerbaijan: They defeated Turkey, and so deserve an 11 place improvement to 91st. Turkey, meanwhile, fall 8 places to 29th, as they gained no points over the qualifiers.

5. France and Italy: France finally start to rise in rank again. They've stopped losing, and that's helping change their average points back where they should be. Italy have dropped points after a draw with Northern Ireland, and the abandoned match gives no points.

6. Greece: This team seems attached to twelfth. They have not moved at all since I started keeping track of the ranks, and the last time they changed position was in June when they came up one place from thirteenth.

7. Scotland: They were the UK's second team, but luck for Northern Ireland has lost the Scots position. It's entirely unfair for them to be drawn against Spain, and they played a good game. But playing well doesn't count for any points, so they remain third in the UK (fourth including Ireland).

8. Wales: At least Scotland aren't Wales, who finally start losing position. They're down into the 100s now, having lost 20 places to go 105th.

9. Israel: They've gone down 20 places as well. Israel have strange form, sometimes being better and sometimes worse. Their home league isn't that bad, so it's hard to know what's up internationally.

10. Cyprus: Who knows what is happening with Cyprus? They drew 4-4 with Portugal, but now have such bad form they drop 45 places to 88th! Their performance is even less understandable than Israel's.

11. Central African Republic: Not a European team, which is why I saved them till last. I predicted they'd rise, but not by this much! Sixty places up to 112th makes them the fastest-rising team in the world. Fellow Africans Niger also rose well, with 54 places, to go 100th.

Africa!

What's with the Central African Republic? Two months ago they were on 0 points in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings. A draw with Morocco shot them up 30 places to 172nd in the world, and now they look to be shooting higher when the new ranks come out on Wednesday. Just as the Euro 2012 qualifiers were taking place, so were the Africa Cup of Nations 2012 qualifiers. Algeria, who qualified for South Africa 2010, were playing CAR and lost!
In total, CAR (or, to use FIFA's lettering, CTA) got 1051.35 points from that match. Don't forget that FIFA take an average over the matches for the whole year to calculate points, so that's not how many points they will go up in the table, but since they've only played two games over the last year, the total of this plus their draw against Morocco will be divided by five. In other words, that's 260.78 points for 2010.
This win puts CAR at the top of their group for the Africa Cup of Nations 2012 qualifiers.

And that ends the interesting non-F1, non-Euro 2012 world news.