Spain climb two places, India static at 105th in FIFA rankings

New Delhi: Spain and Switzerland climbed two and three places each even as India remained static at 105th in the latest FIFA world rankings released on Thursday. The 2010 World Cup champions are now sixth with the Swiss occupying eighth place.

The top five remained unchanged with world champions Germany leading the way from Brazil, Portugal, Argentina and Belgium.

Switzerland`s victory over Northern Ireland in the World Cup play-offs helped them move up, as did similar successes for Denmark and Sweden.

Both Scandinavian countries moved up seven places to 12th and 18th respectively after ousting Republic of Ireland and Italy in the play-offs.

Despite their loss to Sweden denying them a place at the World Cup for the first time in 60 years, Italy still moved up one place to 14th.

It wasn`t such good news for British teams as England dropped three places to 15th despite a pair of credible 0-0 draws with Germany and Brazil recently.

Wales paid for their failure to reach the World Cup finals by dropping five places to 19th.

India drew with Myanmar 2-2 at home in the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers during this ranking period.

Among the Asian Football Confederation countries, the Indian team occupies 15th, ahead of the likes of Jordan, North Korea and Bahrain.

Iran led the Asian rankings.

FIFA rankings as of November 23:

1. Germany
2. Brazil
3. Portugal
4. Argentina
5. Belgium
6. Spain (+2)
7. Poland (-1)
8. Switzerland (+3)
9. France (-2)
10. Chile (-1)
11. Peru (-1)
12. Denmark (+7)
13. Colombia
14. Italy (+1)
15. England (-3)
16. Mexico
17. Croatia (+1)
18. Sweden (+7)
19. Wales (-5)
20. Netherlands

(With Agency inputs)