England fall below Italy in FIFA world rankings

By Giuseppe Labellarte, Reporter | 23 November 2017

England fall one place below Italy in FIFA's latest world rankings despite the Azzurri having failed to reach the World Cup for the first time since 1958.

England have fallen below Italy in FIFA's world rankings despite the Azzurri failing to reach the 2018 World Cup.

The four-time winners lost 1-0 on aggregate to Sweden in their World Cup playoff to miss out on the tournament for the first time since 1958 but have risen one place to 14th.

Gareth Southgate's side, meanwhile, have slipped three places to 15th after friendly draws against Germany and Brazil, ranked first and second in the world respectively.

The Republic of Ireland have dropped six places to joint 32nd, level on points with Scotland and Iran, while Northern Ireland are down one to 24th place.

In ascending order, the top 10 is composed of Germany, Brazil, Portugal, Argentina, Belgium, Spain, Poland, Switzerland, France and Chile.

Senegal were the biggest month-on-month movers, jumping nine places to 23rd, courtesy of two wins over South Africa which secured their World Cup spot.

Rankings are calculated over a four-year period and the 'importance' of any game is one of the elements factored in by FIFA, which uses the rankings to allocate nations to a pot for the World Cup draw.