Srinagar, April 1: Having already spent the longest time at the top of the FIFA World Ranking (4,731 days), Brazil (1st, +1) returned to the summit in March 2022, five years after they were last there.
Recent wins for the Seleçao over Chile (4-0 at home) and Bolivia (4-0 away) in the qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 enabled them to overtake Belgium, who had been in first place for the past three years but who failed to get the better of Republic of Ireland on 26 March, drawing 2-2 in a friendly.
The March 2022 table is therefore a new chapter in rankings history, but more than that, it will be used to calculate the seeds for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Final Draw which will take place this Friday 1 April.
Pot 1: Qatar (host nation), Brazil, Belgium, France, Argentina, England, Spain, Portugal
Pot 2: Mexico, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, Uruguay, Switzerland, USA, Croatia
Pot 3: Senegal, IR Iran, Japan, Morocco, Serbia, Poland, Korea Republic, Tunisia
Pot 4: Cameroon, Canada, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Ghana, winner of intercontinental play-off 1, winner of intercontinental play-off 2, winner of European play-off.
Belgium (2nd, -1) are now on the second step of the podium, ahead of France (3rd) who remain unchanged.
Behind this top three, Argentina (4th), England (5th), Spain (7th) and Portugal (8th) are the next best placed teams with regard to the Draw, keeping in mind that Italy (6th) will be absent following their defeat in the play-off semi-final.
Mexico (9th, +3) and Uruguay (13th, +3) are the biggest movers inside the top 20, while overall, it is Costa Rica (31st, +11) and then New Zealand (101st, +10) who have made the most progress. Also of note is the fact that Kosovo (107th, +2) have achieved their highest ever ranking to date.
The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World ranking will be published on 23 June 2022.
Leader Brazil
Moves into top 10 Mexico (9, plus 3)
Moves out of top 10 Denmark (11, minus 2)
Matches played in total 162
Most matches played New Zealand (5)
Biggest move by points New Zealand (44.41 points)
Biggest move by places Costa Rica (plus 11 places)
Biggest drop by points New Caledonia (minus 35.42 points)
Biggest drop by places Azerbaijan and Somalia (minus 8 places)
Newly ranked teams Cook Islands
Teams that are no longer ranked None
Inactive teams that are no longer ranked None