Belgium retain the top spot in FIFA rankings; India gains six places

Belgium will finish the year as number one ranked team

The Belgium national football team have retained top spot in the recently released FIFA rankings, with Argentina behind them in second, Spain in third and the world champions Germany in the fourth spot.

The Red Devils will now finish the year at the top, despite Argentina having gained two places. Chile and Brazil are placed in fifth and sixth position respectively; with Portugal, Columbia, England and Austria completing the top 10 list.

As for the United Kingdom’s teams, England remained at ninth but Wales who rose to eighth in the month of October, dropped seven places last month and now have lost two more places to finish 2015 as the 17th ranked football team. Northern Ireland are down to 30th while Scotland fell eight places to 52nd.

The Indian football team gained six places to reach the 166th rank, they dropped to 172nd spot last month after losing their first five World Cup qualifier matches back to back, however, a 1-0 win against lowly Guam in their sixth qualifying fixture helped them jump six places in the rankings.

Belgium and Turkey revered for their performance in 2015

Belgium have been awarded the Team of the Year award for 2015 as they finish the year in prime position. The Red Devils rose to the top for the first time in their history last month. A 3-1 win over Italy, who are four-time world champions, on November 13 cemented their position at the helm of the rankings. Argentina and Spain trumped last year’s team of the year Germany in the rankings as Die Mannschaft lost 2-0 to the French team on 14th November.

On the other hand, Turkey were the best movers of the calendar year and they were duly given the Best Mover of the Year award. They earned 329 points in one year as they secured qualification for UEFA EURO 2016. They defeated teams like Netherlands, Czech Republic and Iceland in the latter stages of the qualification, which saw them gain the maximum amount of points. Hungary gained 20 places as well after they qualified for UEFA Euro 2016, which will be their first major tournament since the 1986 FIFA World Cup.

Portugal conceded the maximum number of points in the month of November (145) which meant they dropped three places to finish this year at the seventh position.