LONDON, Nov 19: World champions Brazil stayed ahead of France at the top of the world soccer rankings published on Wednesday as defeats for the Netherlands, England, Germany and Italy allowed Mexico to climb to fifth.

The Dutch slipped to sixth following their first-leg Euro 2004 playoff defeat by Scotland, while friendly losses sent England down to eighth, Germany to ninth and Italy to 11th.

Mexico rose three places despite not playing an international in the past month.

Scotland returned to the top 50 for the first time in two years following their 1-0 home win over the Dutch, while Latvia jumped 13 places to 56th after beating Turkey 1-0 in the first leg of their European Championship playoff.

Leading FIFA world rankings

1. (1) Brazil 852 points 2. (2) France 826 3. (3) Spain 785 4. (4) Argentina 750 5. (8=) Mexico 742 6. (5) Netherlands 740 7. (8=) Turkey 739 8. (6) England 738 9. (7) Germany 736 10. (11) Czech Republic 735 11. (8=) Italy 733 12. (12) United States 732 13. (14) Denmark 714 14. (13) Cameroon 712 15. (15) Ireland 706 16. (16) Belgium 696 17. (18) Sweden 681 18. (17) Portugal 680 19. (19) Costa Rica 679 20. (20) Croatia 662

Note: FIFA’s standings are based on a statistical analysis of countries’ results over eight years, weighted according to how recently the matches were played, the strength of the opponents and the importance of each match.—Reuters