Australia slips five in rankings

Australia has slipped five places to number 40 in the latest world rankings released by FIFA yesterday.

Australia has slipped five places to number 40 in the latest world rankings released by FIFA yesterday.

Having reached a two-year high of 35 last month, Australia-s mixed results in the final qualifiers in this ranking period (one win and two losses) saw them lose 40 ranking points in total and slip to 40th.

As a result, Australia has now slipped down to the 3rd highest ranked Asian team, with Japan jumping back to the No.1 slot at 34 (up four places) and Iran jumping up a massive 11 places to 37 after an impressive unbeaten run in the June World Cup qualifiers.

The July rankings list saw a new team replace Argentina as the top ranked nation in the world, with Spain-s EURO 2008 triumph pushing them up to top spot for the first time in its history.

Argentina and Brazil (previously second), by comparison, plummeted down the table with the former top dog sliding to sixth while the Brazilians went back to fourth. Both teams have started their World Cup qualifying campaigns in disappointing fashion, highlighted by a 0-0 between the two sides in their last qualifying match.

Italy has moved to second, Germany third and the Netherlands moves to fifth.