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Sunday, 14 March 2010

Australia News Sweet Sixteen For Socceroos

THE Socceroos have climbed to an all-time high of 16 in the latest FIFA rankings released today.

Pim Verbeek's men enjoyed an unbeaten trio of World Cup qualifiers last month and their form has seen them rewarded.

It is the highest Australia has ever been placed in FIFA's international ratings system which ranks 203 member nations of FIFA.   

"We are delighted at this new. Rankings are not the 'be all and end all' of football but they are certainly an indicator of our progress.  

"The more competitive games we play, the greater the opportunity to improve our position in the world rankings and the more match hardened the team becomes.  

"This is a great reward for the Qantas Socceroos form in the qualifying rounds for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.  

 "Once again, we congratulate Pim Verbeek and the players for their efforts," said Football Federation Australia CEO Ben Buckley.

The Socceroos became the second team to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup (excluding the host nation) in early June, and finished the fourth stage of qualification with 6 wins and 2 draws against strong rivals Japan, Qatar, Bahrain and Uzbekistan.  

Buckley said he had recently returned from a brief trip to South Africa and said that it will be a "fantastic" tournament.  

"We can't speak highly enough of the facilities we visited, the people we met and the atmosphere generated by local supporters at the games," he said.

Thirty-two countries compete in the FIFA World Cup which will take place in South Africa from 11 June - 11 July next year.   Australia will know their opponents in the group stage at the final draw in Cape Town on 4 December.

Local rivals Japan slumped nine places to 40th position overall.

At the top, Brazil have finally toppled Spaintfor first place following their Confederations Cup triumph in South Africa.

The Selecao return to the summit for the first time since August 2007, bumping European champions Spain down to second and Holland to third.

World champions Italy remain in fourth while Germany slip two spots to fifth.

Russia climb three places to sixth, relegating England and Argentina to seventh and eighth respectively.

FIFA'S TOP 50 (c) FIFA

1	Brazil	1672	4		384
2	Spain	1590	-1		-171
3	Netherlands	1379	-1		-63
4	Italy	1229	0		-63
5	Germany	1207	-2		-171
6	Russia	1161	3		-6
7	England	1135	-1		-90
8	Argentina	1091	-1		-112
9	France	1082	1		15
10	Croatia	1031	-2		-169
11	Greece	1001	6		79
12	USA	983	2		36
13	Switzerland	930	3		-1
14	Serbia	925	6		55
15	Denmark	909	9		73
16	Australia	886	13		107
17	Portugal	879	-6		-125
18	Côte d'Ivoire	874	20		129
19	Ukraine	869	0		-22
20	Uruguay	860	-3		-62
21	Czech Republic	850	-6		-93
22	Paraguay	846	-9		-115
23	Bulgaria	839	0		1
24	Scotland	837	-2		-3
25	Israel	822	0		-5
26	Romania	814	2		24
27	Chile	811	10		65
28	Turkey	809	-16		-155
29	Cameroon	803	-8		-52
30	Costa Rica	789	11		95
30	Gabon	789	18		173
32	Northern Ireland	784	-5		-36
33	Mexico	777	-7		-45
34	Nigeria	773	-4		3
35	Ghana	772	1		22
36	Ecuador	760	8		74
37	Republic of Ireland	758	-3		-4
38	Egypt	754	2		35
39	Honduras	753	-4		-8
40	Japan	722	-9		-44
41	Poland	706	-2		-16
42	Sweden	702	-11		-64
43	Slovakia	687	-1		-6
44	Hungary	681	-1		-6
45	Bosnia-Herzegovina	680	-12		-83
46	Colombia	675	-1		-3
47	Algeria	661	19		171
48	Korea Republic	634	-2		-20
49	Tunisia	614	2		17
50	Norway	606	-3		-32

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