FIFA World Rankings Facts for Kids

The FIFA World Rankings are a way to rank men's football teams from different countries. FIFA, the world's football governing body, creates these rankings. As of December 2020, the Belgium was ranked number one. The rankings started in 1993, and Germany was the first team to reach the top spot.

Teams earn points based on how they perform in official international matches recognized by FIFA. The more important the match and the stronger the opponent, the more points a team can get.

In June 2018, FIFA changed how the rankings are calculated. The new system is similar to the Elo rating system, which updates rankings after every game. The old system used to give different weight to games based on which continent the teams were from, but this was removed. However, the new system doesn't consider if a game is played at home or away, or by how many goals a team wins. After this change, France, who won the 2018 FIFA World Cup, moved to the top, while Germany dropped to 15th place.

Rank	Team	Points
Top 30 Rankings as of 10 December 2020
1	Belgium	1780
2	France	1755
3	Brazil	1743
4	England	1670
5	Portugal	1662
6	Spain	1645
7	Argentina	1642
8	Uruguay	1639
9	Mexico	1632
10	Italy	1625
11	Croatia	1617
12	Denmark	1614
13	Germany	1610
14	Netherlands	1609
15	Colombia	1601
16	Switzerland	1593
17	Chile	1567
18	Wales	1562
19	Poland	1559
20	Senegal	1558
20	Sweden	1558

Teams at the Top of the Rankings
Awards for Football Teams
- Team of the Year Award
  - Team Performance Summary
- Best Mover of the Year Award
Images for kids
See also

Teams at the Top of the Rankings

FIFA World Men's Ranking Leaders

When the ranking system began, Germany was the top team. This was because they had done very well in previous FIFA World Cups. Soon after, Brazil took the lead. They had won many qualifying matches for the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

Italy held the top spot briefly in 1993. Then Germany took it back. Brazil's victory in the 1994 World Cup gave them a strong lead for almost seven years.

A powerful France team then took over. They won both the 1998 FIFA World Cup and the 2000 UEFA European Championship. Brazil returned to the top after winning the 2002 FIFA World Cup. They stayed there until 2007.

After winning the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Italy briefly returned to number one. Then Argentina reached the top for the first time in March 2007. Italy and Argentina traded the top spot a few times that year.

In July 2008, Spain became number one for the first time. They had just won UEFA Euro 2008. Brazil returned to the top in July 2009 after winning the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup. Spain then regained the lead in November 2009. They had won all their qualifying matches for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Brazil was back at number one in April 2010. After winning the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Spain held the top position until August 2011. The Netherlands then reached the top for the first time. However, they dropped out of the top spot the very next month.

In July 2014, Germany took the lead again after winning the 2014 FIFA World Cup. A year later, in July 2015, Argentina was back at number one. This was after they reached the finals of both the 2014 World Cup and the 2015 Copa América. In November 2015, Belgium became the leader for the first time. They had won their qualifying group for UEFA Euro 2016.

Belgium held the top spot until April 2016, when Argentina returned. Brazil was back at number one in April 2017. They had already qualified for the 2018 World Cup. However, Germany regained the top spot in July after winning the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup.

After FIFA updated its ranking system in 2018, France took the top spot in August 2018. This was after they won the 2018 FIFA World Cup. One month later, Belgium shared the top spot with France. Since September 2018, Belgium has been leading the FIFA rankings.

Awards for Football Teams

FIFA gives out awards to recognize teams for their performance.

Team of the Year Award

The "Team of the Year" award goes to the team that finishes the year ranked number one.

Year	First place	Second place	Third place
1993	Germany (1)	Italy	Brazil
1994	Brazil (1)	Spain	Sweden
1995	Brazil (2)	Germany	Italy
1996	Brazil (3)	Germany	France
1997	Brazil (4)	Germany	Czech Republic
1998	Brazil (5)	France	Germany
1999	Brazil (6)	Czech Republic	France
2000	Brazil (7)	France	Argentina
2001	France (1)	Argentina	Brazil
2002	Brazil (8)	France	Spain
2003	Brazil (9)	France	Spain
2004	Brazil (10)	France	Argentina
2005	Brazil (11)	Czech Republic	Netherlands
2006	Brazil (12)	Italy	Argentina
2007	Argentina (1)	Brazil	Italy
2008	Spain (1)	Germany	Netherlands
2009	Spain (2)	Brazil	Netherlands
2010	Spain (3)	Netherlands	Germany
2011	Spain (4)	Netherlands	Germany
2012	Spain (5)	Germany	Argentina
2013	Spain (6)	Germany	Argentina
2014	Germany (2)	Argentina	Colombia
2015	Belgium (1)	Argentina	Spain
2016	Argentina (2)	Brazil	Germany
2017	Germany (3)	Brazil	Portugal
2018	Belgium (2)	France	Brazil
2019	Belgium (3)	France	Brazil
2020	Belgium (4)	France	Brazil

Team Performance Summary

This table shows how many times each team has finished in the top three for the "Team of the Year" award.

Team	First place	Second place	Third place	Top 3
Brazil	12	4	5	21
Spain	6	1	3	10
Belgium	4	0	0	4
Germany	3	6	4	13
Argentina	2	3	5	10
France	1	8	2	11
Netherlands	0	2	3	5
Italy	0	2	2	4
Czech Republic	0	2	1	3
Portugal	0	0	1	1
Colombia	0	0	1	1
Sweden	0	0	1	1

Best Mover of the Year Award

The "Best Mover of the Year" award was given to the team that made the biggest jump in the rankings during a year. It wasn't just about moving up the most spots. A special calculation was used. This calculation considered how many points a team had at the end of the year and how many points they gained during the year. This made it fair, as it's harder for higher-ranked teams to earn more points.

The award was officially given out until 2006.

Year	First place	Second place	Third place
1993	Colombia	Portugal	Morocco
1994	Croatia	Brazil	Uzbekistan
1995	Jamaica	Trinidad and Tobago	Czech Republic
1996	South Africa	Paraguay	Canada
1997	Yugoslavia	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Iran
1998	Croatia	France	Argentina
1999	Slovenia	Cuba	Uzbekistan
2000	Nigeria	Honduras	Cameroon
2001	Costa Rica	Australia	Honduras
2002	Senegal	Wales	Brazil
2003	Bahrain	Oman	Turkmenistan
2004	China	Uzbekistan	Ivory Coast
2005	Ghana	Ethiopia	Switzerland
2006	Italy	Germany	France