Malta climb 11 places Sweden back in top ten

Malta moved up a significant 11 places in the latest edition of the FIFA World Ranking which is heavily shaped by the 89 World Cup qualifiers and nearly 40 friendly matches played last month.

Rising from 138th to 127th, Malta's progress owes to two positive results as Horst Heese's team followed their 1-1 stalemate against Northern Ireland in a friendly match last month by holding Croatia to a one-all draw in a qualifying match for World Cup 2006.

In between these two home matches, Malta had suffered a 4-0 defeat away to Hungary in another World Cup qualifier.

Thanks to the 27 points gained in respect to last month's tally, Malta have closed the gap on Andorra (125th, up 9) to just seven points. However, Malta have been overtaken by Liechtenstein whose hefty 44-point harvest this month propelled them to 123rd.

Fellow UEFA members Faroe Islands, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg and San Marino are all ranked below Malta.

In the upper part of the ranking, Brazil are still the clear leaders but the Netherlands moved up one place into second, their highest position for more than ten years.

Zinedine Zidane's comeback also guided France (6th, up 3) up the ranking, while Sweden (10th, up 5) returned to the top ten after an absence of exactly nine years.

Other significant climbers include Denmark (14th, up 4), Poland (17th, up 5), Cameroon (22nd, up 6), Tunisia (23rd, up 8), Senegal (35th, up 5), Switzerland (38th, up 4), Belgium (47th, up 5) and Australia (50th, up 7).

Outside the top 50, a number of teams jumped ten places or more, including Togo (54th, up 12), Venezuela (57th, up 10), Bosnia-Herzegovina (67th, up 11) and Scotland (74th, up 12). Northern Ireland (101st, up 15) are also part of this select group, not least thanks to their sensational victory over England which also secured this month's highest points tally.

Six teams - Poland (17th), Togo (54th), Panama (76th), Botswana (96th), Liechtenstein (123rd) and Andorra (125th) - are currently in their highest position since the inception of the ranking in 1993.

Meanwhile, Tunisia, Togo, Ukraine, Panama, the USA and Switzerland are leading the race to be crowned Best Mover of the Year 2005.