ZURICH: Belgium will end the year as No. 1 ahead of world champions France in the global rankings released by FIFA on Thursday.

FIFA said Belgium are a single ranking point 1,727 to 1,726 ahead of Didier Deschamps’ French team which won their World Cup semi-final in Russia.

France triumphed 1-0 over Belgium in the last four before a 4-2 win against Croatia landed them the trophy for the first time since 1998.

Brazil are third on 1,676 and World Cup runners-up Croatia are fourth in a mostly unchanged monthly ranking.

England and Portugal, who both qualified last month for the UEFA Nations League Final Four tournament, are fifth and sixth.

Uruguay, Switzerland, Spain, and Denmark complete the top 10, followed by Argentina, Colombia and Chile in the same order.

A resurgent Netherlands are 14th while four-time world champions Germany finished one of the worst years in their history in 16th and rebuilding Italy ended the year in 18th.

FIFA noted on their website that France, who were ranked ninth last Christmas, were the year’s “Best Mover” after a “stellar 2018...having gained more points (165) since December 2017 than any other nation.”

Over that period, France won 12 matches, tied four and were defeated twice.

The governing body of world football also noted that Europe and Asia have gained top-50 places at the expense of Africa.

Europe has 31, an increase of two, Asia is up one to three and Africa is down three to five top-50 representatives.

Kosovo were the biggest climbers, jumping 46 places to 131.

Iran at 29th will be the highest-ranked Asian team at the Asian Cup starting on January 5. Australia are 41st, Japan sit 50th, South Korea are placed 53rd while Saudi Arabia are 69th.

Pakistan ended the year in 199th place as Asia’s second worst-ranked team, ahead of Sri Lanka (201). India are the highest-ranked South Asian team in 97th.

Qatar, the 2022 World Cup hosts, are 93rd while Russia finished the year in 48th after hosting a spectacular edition of world football’s showpiece tournament.

Senegal are Africa’s best team at 23rd with Tunisia (26), Morocco (40), Nigeria (44) and Congo DR (49) completing the continent’s top five.

Mexico lead CONCACAF region teams at 17th and the United States are 25th.

Published in Dawn, December 21st, 2018