The Republic of Ireland have moved up three places to 27th in the latest FIFA World Rankings released today.
The good run of results in their World Cup qualifying campaign has helped Mick Mcarthy’s team climb the rankings considerably. The Republic were only ranked 57th in November 1998 and today’s position is their highest since McCarthy took charge in 1996.
England held on to their ranking of 14th but Scotland slipped to 24th, Northern Ireland fell to 101st and Wales moved back to 110th position.
At the summit of the table, reigning world and European champions France have dethroned Brazil to take top spot, a position held by the South Americans since the 1994 World Cup finals.
The French are only the fourth side to top the world ranking since its inception in 1993 following Germany, Italy and Brazil. Roger Lemerre's side have a narrow two point lead, 796-794 over Brazil with Argentina third on 763.
Brazil have been suffering something of a slump in form recently. Poor results have seen them struggle in their South American zone World Cup qualifiers which led to the sacking their manager Wanderley Luxemburgo.
Rankings as of May 16th:
1France
2Brazil
3Argentina
4Italy
5Portugal
6Spain
7Czech Republic
8Netherlands
9Germany
10Paraguay
11Yugoslavia
12Romania
13Mexico
14England
15United States
16Colombia
17Norway
18Russia
19Croatia
20Denmark
21Sweden
22South Africa
23Poland
24Scotland
25Slovakia
26Morocco
27 Republic of Ireland
28Saudi Arabia
29Turkey
30Belgium