Iceland have climbed to an all-time high position of 18th in the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. The rise of the FIFA World Cup™-bound Icelanders (18th, up 2) is one of the more notable changes in a February table left largely unaltered by a quiet period of international action.
Just 34 international friendlies, 28 of which were in Africa, came into the equation, resulting in a static top 15 that is still headed by Germany, Brazil and Portugal (1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively, all unchanged).
There was some significant movement further down the order, though, with Venezuela (48th, up 4), Hungary (49th, up 5) and Jamaica (50th, up 5) all entering the top 50 at the expense of Cameroon (51st, down 6), Ghana (54th, down 4), and Burkina Faso (57th, down 13).
Those losses by the African trio, and others in the continent, can be attributed both to results in the recent friendlies and to the devaluation of last year’s CAF Africa Cup of Nations in calculating points tallies. But there were gains as well as losses for sides in the Mother Continent, with Congo (88th, up 8) and Sudan (118th, up 6) among the biggest climbers.
The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 15 March 2018.
