Iran drops two spots in FIFA rankings

PTV - Iran has dropped two places to 48th in the latest FIFA rankings but still stands third among the Asian teams following Japan and Australia.

Japan is in 32nd place while Australia moved up five steps to reach 34th place. Saudi Arabia dropped three spots to 51st and South Korea moved down 4 steps to 55th in the latest list issued Wednesday by the world governing body, FIFA.

Euro 2008 champion Spain remained at the top of the world football rankings for a fourth straight month with 1,643 points.

World champion Italy was ranked second, followed by Euro 2008 finalists Germany, Brazil and the Netherlands.

Euro semi-finalists Russia jumped an impressive three spots to reach 9th place. Turkey dropped from 10th to 13th position. Scotland fell 10 places to 26th, while England climbed one spot to 14th.

FIFA world rankings (previous position in brackets):

1. (1) Spain

2. (2) Italy

3. (3) Germany

4. (6) Brazil

5. (4) Netherlands

6. (5) Croatia

7. (7) Argentina

8. (8) Czech Republic

9. (12) Russia

10. (9) Portugal

11. (11) France

12. (14) Cameroon

13. (10) Turkey

14. (15) England

15. (16) Bulgaria

16. (19) Israel

17. (18) Greece

18. (13) Romania

19. (26) Ukraine

20. (22) Uruguay