Republic unchanged in FIFA rankings

Ireland's position in the latest FIFA world rankings remains unchanged in 14th position.

Ireland's position in the latest FIFA world rankings remains unchanged in 14th position.

Brazil remain top of the standings with France, Spain and maintaining their second and third places.

England slipped a place to eighth as Sven Goran-Eriksson's side were overtaken by World Cup semi-finalists and Euro 2004 qualifying rivals Turkey, who have also leapfrogged Mexico to go seventh.

The new FIFA Coca-Cola World Rankings also include Afghanistan for the firsttime. They have entered at 204 after a near 20-year exile from internationalfootball.

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The Afghans are currently competing in the SAFF Championship in Bangladesh -their first international matches for almost two decades.

With this addition, the rankings include all FIFA members for the first timeever.

Despite a relatively quiet start to the 2003 international match calendar, thelatest rankings take into account 59 international "A" games, bringing thetotal number of evaluated matches in 2002 to 717.

FIFA Coca-Cola World Rankings as of January 15th:


1. (1) Brazil 856 points
2. (2) France 787
3. (3) Spain 780
4. (4) Germany 765
5. (5) Argentina 750
6. (6) Netherlands 746
7. (9) Turkey 736
8. (7) England 734
9. (8) Mexico 732
10. (10) United States 723
11. (11) Portugal 710
12. (12) Denmark 707
13. (13) Italy 705
14. (14) Ireland 697
15. (15) Czech Republic 687
16. (17) Belgium 686
17. (16) Cameroon 684
18. (18) Paraguay 679
19. (19) Yugoslavia 677
20. (20) South Korea 669