Since the start of 2015, England have played a total of 12 international matches – six friendlies and six qualification matches for Euro 2016.
The Three Lions won eight of them, including a 2-0 win against France and a 3-2 triumph over world champions Germany in Berlin. Meanwhile, England registered just two draws (against Italy and Ireland) and two defeats (against Spain and the Netherlands).
Conclusion: England won their last six competitive matches, while beating two major countries during friendlies. However, those results didn’t translate in a higher place in the FIFA rankings.
On the contrary, the Three Lions dropped from ninth to tenth place as Uruguay jumped over them in the April’s standings. This was mainly caused by England’s superb 2013 average dropping in value, as FIFA points are a weighted average from the past four years.
Meanwhile, Northern-Ireland rose to their highest-ever position, being ranked 26th, ahead of Poland, Russia and the Czech Republic. Wales dropped seven places to 24th, Ireland dropped two places to 31st, while Scotland rose five places to 40th.
For your information: the best mover was Guinea-Bissau (+45 places to 102nd), the worst mover Aruba (-24 to 137th), while Argentina overtook Belgium on top.
FIFA rankings top 20:
- Argentina 1532
- Belgium 1352
- Chili 1348
- Colombia 1337
- Germany 1309
- Spain 1277
- Brazil 1251
- Portugal 1184
- Uruguay 1158
- England 1069
- Austria 1067
- Ecuador 1019
- Turkey 983
- Switzerland 974
- Italy 959
- Mexico 934
- Netherlands 931
- Hungary 925
- Romania 922
- Bosnia and Herz. 913
