France failed by a hair's breadth to bring the long reign of the nigh invincible Brazilians to an end in the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola-World Ranking. Lagging 70 points behind a month ago when EURO 2000 started, the newly crowned European champions virtually polevaulted to the top and are now breathing heavily down the Seleçao's necks. France and Brazil are the only two teams ever to have waltzed past the 800 point mark. Other laudable winners were the EURO co-finalists Italy (6th, up 8) and semifinalists Portugal (7th, up 8) and the Netherlands (8th, up 13), all of whom gleaned at least 70 points, thus catapulting into the top ten.
June 2000 will go down in history as one of the most action packed in international football. Apart from the European championship and the Oceania National Cup, the 2002 World Cup qualifiers for CONMEBOL, CONCACAF and CAF were being contested, not to mention 75 friendlies that were also sucked into the statistics.
Hence some spectacular jostling took place outside Europe: Japan (46th, up 11) is back among the top 50, with Honduras (51st, up 11) in hot pursuit. Oceania champions Australia exacted revenge on New Zealand for the latter's defeat of them in the 1998 final (63rd, up 29).
Taking the index value, which reflects the teams' absolute strength, into account, the Netherlands, followed by Canada and Australia, are the biggest movers of the year 2000 so far.
1 Brazil
2 France
3 Czech Republic
4 Spain
4 Argentina
6 Italy
7 Portugal
8 Netherlands
9 Germany
10 Norway
June 2000 will go down in history as one of the most action packed in international football. Apart from the European championship and the Oceania National Cup, the 2002 World Cup qualifiers for CONMEBOL, CONCACAF and CAF were being contested, not to mention 75 friendlies that were also sucked into the statistics.
Hence some spectacular jostling took place outside Europe: Japan (46th, up 11) is back among the top 50, with Honduras (51st, up 11) in hot pursuit. Oceania champions Australia exacted revenge on New Zealand for the latter's defeat of them in the 1998 final (63rd, up 29).
Taking the index value, which reflects the teams' absolute strength, into account, the Netherlands, followed by Canada and Australia, are the biggest movers of the year 2000 so far.
1 Brazil
2 France
3 Czech Republic
4 Spain
4 Argentina
6 Italy
7 Portugal
8 Netherlands
9 Germany
10 Norway