Germany top FIFA's year end rankings, England climb 7 spots, India drop to 171

Paris: World champions Germany comfortably top the pile of the FIFA national team rankings revealed on Thursday despite a slump in form since their rampant campaign in Brazil.

The top three remain unchanged since September with Lionel Messi's beaten World Cup finalists Argentina second and Colombia in third place.

Front pages of German newspapers celebrating their World Cup triumph. Pic/AFP

Up-and-coming Belgium are fourth ahead of their northern neighbours, the Netherlands, while humiliated World Cup hosts Brazil round off the year in a respectable sixth position.

Euro 2016 hosts France are seventh as Didier Deschamps' solid team continue to impress while World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal are level with them.

After years atop the heap, Spain end 2014 in ninth place, but look to be in fine health with 2015 coming into view. Finally, Luis Suarez's Uruguay have done enough to climb back into top 10 for the year end rankings.

England jump to 13th spot

With six consecutive wins, England's good run is reflected in the rankings. The Three Lions have jumped seven places to move up to 13th in the rankings.

Roy Hodgson's side had slipped to 20th in the rankings following a dismal World Cup, in which they were eliminated with just a single point, but have climbed seven places after they defeated Slovenia 3-1 and Scotland by the same scoreline.

England's rise coincides with falls from Algeria, Croatia and Mexico - 18th, 19th and 20th respectively - who all suffered surprising defeats in the latest round of fixtures, the latter losing 3-2 to Belarus in Minsk.

Czech Republic also moved up 5 spots to be placed at 17th.

The biggest climbers were Faroe Islands following their 1-0 victory over Greece, the minnows jumped 82 places to world number 105 after beating the Euro 2004 winners.

India drop to 171 in FIFA rankings

Manager-less India have taken a fall in the FIFA rankings once again, dropping one place in the latest edition.

India have dropped a spot from the 170th slot to the 171st position in the latest edition of the FIFA rankings.

The national side are still without a head coach following the resignation of Wim Koevermans a few months back.

Amongst the SAFF Nations, Afghanistan are ranked at 143 while Sri Lanka are ranked just below India on 172.

Iran are the highest Asian ranked nation in the 51st spot followed by Japan at 54.

A total of 150 new ‘A' international matches have been taken into account for this month's edition of the FIFA world rankings, bringing the total number of matches evaluated in 2014 to 817.
Sixty-one of these matches were part of continental qualifiers in Europe, Africa and the CONCACAF region, with the other 89 being friendly matches.