The Fiji men’s football  side has taken a major leap up the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola world ranking released this morning.

Following its recent performance in the Pacific Games this month, the Carlos Buzzetti coached side has moved up 51 places from 170th place and now sit at a comfortable 119th spot ahead of PG gold
medal winners, New Caledonia who lag five places behind, Vanuatu at 133rd and the Solomon Islands at 121st.

“The ranking fluctuates according to the competition and tournaments held. Since the Pacific Games was a world cup qualifying event, this was taken into consideration and finishing second behind New
Caledonia did not hinder our placing because the amount of goals Fiji scored was taken into consideration,” Bob Kumar, Fiji Football Association CEO said.

Fiji is ahead of New Zealand, who is yet to start their World Cup Qualifying campaign. The Kiwis are currently at 156th spot, down seven

Meanwhile a 2-1 victory over Ukraine in the race to qualify for EURO 2008 sees World Cup holders Italy (1st, up 2) climb ahead of Argentina (2nd, unchanged) and Brazil (3rd, down 2) in the latest
FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. The leading trio of teams have a clear advantage over the chasing pack, although Germany (4th, up 1) and the Netherlands (5th, up 2) have overtaken France (6th, down 2),
who have lost a considerable amount of points on the back of their defeat at the hands of Scotland. Meanwhile, the Scots (14th, up 9) have taken giant strides up to 14th thanks to victories over
Lithuania and France in the European Championship qualifiers, thereby equalling their best-ever position in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. 

 

There is also notable movement outside of the top 50. Several European teams have enjoyed significant gains after victories in EURO 2008 qualifiers, including Wales (53rd, up 21), Hungary (55th, up
10),  Belgium (60th, up 9), Cyprus (68th, up 14), Slovenia (75th, up 19), Iceland (80th, up 37), Moldova (81st, up 25) and Latvia (94th, up 16).

After defeating Cameroon in the qualifiers for the Africa Cup of Nations, Equatorial Guinea (72nd,  up 33) are also among the major movers in September and they too currently sit in their
best-ever position in the ranking.

 

The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 24 October 2007.