New FIFA Rankings Released - Netherlands #1

FIFA's new set of World Rankings came out today and for the first time in 13 months Spain is not ranked first. Instead it's the team Spain beat last summer to win the World Cup, the Netherlands, who has taken over the number one ranking. It's the first time the Dutch have ever been ranked number one, and they can thank the Italians as it was Italy who defeated Spain two weeks ago 2-1 in a friendly. The reigning World Cup champs dropped to number two, with Germany, England, Uruguay, Brazil, Italy, Portugal, Argentina and Croatia rounding out the top ten.

Photo Credit: netherlands.worldcupblog.org

Mexico still leads the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) holding steady at number 20, but the United States closed the gap a little bit moving up two spots to number 28. Jamaica (43) and Honduras (50) are the only other CONCACAF teams in the Top 50. The Ivory Coast drops one spot to number 15, but is still the highest ranked African team by a large margin, Japan is tied with Ivory Coast at number 15 to lead Asia's Football Confederation, and New Zealand leads the Oceanic Football Confederation coming in at number 94.

For the complete rankings, check the FIFA website.