Despite lifting the World Cup trophy in FIFA World Cup 2022 held in Qatar, Argentina fails to top the list of Latest FIFA Rankings. On Thursday, FIFA released the latest FIFA rankings for men football teams considering their overall performance in all the games included in the FIFA calendar. FIFA World Cup 2022 also played a crucial part in determining these rankings though the Champion team failed to top the rankings. If not Argentina, then who? Who secured top spot in latest FIFA rankings?
In this article, we will provide you with the whole list of the latest FIFA rankings released on December 22, four days after the 22nd World Cup in history ended.
Latest FIFA Rankings 2022 For Football Teams
| Rank | Football Teams | Confederation | Points |
| 1 | Brazil | CONMEBOL | 1840.77 |
| 2 | Argentina | CONMEBOL | 1838.38 |
| 3 | France | UEFA | 1823.39 |
| 4 | Belgium | UEFA | 1781.3 |
| 5 | England | UEFA | 1774.19 |
| 6 | Netherlands | UEFA | 1740.92 |
| 7 | Croatia | UEFA | 1727.62 |
| 8 | Italy | UEFA | 1723.56 |
| 9 | Portugal | UEFA | 1702.54 |
| 10 | Spain | UEFA | 1692.71 |
| 11 | Morocco | CAF | 1672.35 |
| 12 | Switzerland | UEFA | 1655.02 |
| 13 | USA | CONCACAF | 1652.74 |
| 14 | Germany | UEFA | 1646.91 |
| 15 | Mexico | CONCACAF | 1635.78 |
| 16 | Uruguay | CONMEBOL | 1627.45 |
| 17 | Colombia | CONMEBOL | 1612.78 |
| 18 | Denmark | UEFA | 1608.11 |
| 19 | Senegal | CAF | 1603.98 |
Despite winning the championship of World Cup 2022, Argentina failed to occupy top spot in the latest FIFA Rankings. They couldn’t beat their all time South American rival, Brazil who is also the five times World Cup winner. Though Brazil fell down in quarterfinals on penalties, it succeeded to top the FIFA rankings beating the current Champion Argentina with 1840.77 points. 
Top 20 FIFA Rankings
Top two FIFA rankings aside, European teams occupied all the spots in top 10 with 2018 World Cup champion and 2022 World Cup runner up France moving to third place. Crashing out in the group stage, Belgium ranked no.4 after France while previously it was ranked second. The FIFA World Cup 2022 quarterfinalist England went on to follow Belgium to rank fifth in latest FIFA rankings.
Other five teams from Europe in the top 10 are the Netherlands, Croatia, Italy, Portugal and Spain. While Croatia directly jumped five spots to seventh finishing in third place in the world Cup. Croatia became one of the major gainers by jumping five spots while Morocco jumped 11 spots from Rank 22 to no. 11. Finishing in fourth place in Qatar World Cup, Morocco played one of the biggest games at the table.
The USA played a big game moving to 13th place becoming the highest ranked North American football team. USA made it due to its performance in the World Cup where it leaped Mexico over to reach the round of 16. On the other hand, Canada came out to be the biggest loser as it dropped by 12 spots to reach no. 53 from no. 41. Its failure to score a single point in FIFA World Cup Qatar contributed to its fall.
Overall, the 20-highest FIFA ranked Nations include teams from all over the globe though Europe alone making up 11 out of 20 top teams. Just like always, Europe is dominating football in this list as well. Apart from these European teams, there are four South American nations as well including Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia. Brazil and Argentina are the most prominent names in the world of football, and after Argentina’s win in World Cup 2022 they have to be here.
Top 20 FIFA ranked Nations also consists of two North American nations (USA and Mexico), one Asian nation (Japan, the highest ranked asian football team) and two from South Africa (Senegal and Morocco).
Top 50 Nations in FIFA Rankings
We already mentioned the top twenty nations in the latest FIFA World Cup rankings. It’s time for the rest of the FIFA ranked Nations.
- Peru
- Poland
- Sweden
- IR Iran
- Korean Republic
- Ukraine
- Australia
- Wales
- Serbia
- Tunisia
- Chile
- Costa Rica
- Cameroon
- Austria
- Nigeria
- Hungary
- Russia
- Czechia
- Egypt
- Algeria
- Ecuador
- Scotland
- Norway
- Turkiye
- Mali
- Paraguay
- Cote d’Ivoire
- Republic of Ireland
- Saudi Arabia
- Burkina Faso
Why is Argentina not on top of the rankings?
Despite winning the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar, Argentina was not able to earn enough points to come at the top of the rankings. Why? Is the Championship not enough to score points?
There are several factors that are considered before giving points to a team or determining the ranks. One of the major factors that had an adverse effect on Argentina’s rank is the penalties it used to emerge victorious in the tournament. Generally, penalty shootout victories are not worth the same as regular or extra time victories.
After lifting the World Cup trophy in Qatar, Argentina became the holders of penalties. It holds two penalty shootout wins, both of which were knockout. First, its penalty shootout win over Netherlands in quarterfinals and second beating France in the finals to lift the trophy.
These penalties resulted in Argentina’s loss in points. Hence, Brazil preceded the Champion to get hold of top rank in FIFA’s Latest rankings.
When will the next FIFA rankings be released?
There is no specific time when FIFA rankings are released. FIFA rankings are usually revised each recognised international window. However, it makes the FIFA update the rankings several times a year.
International windows follow the FIFA match calendar. The next FIFA football rankings are scheduled to be released around March 2023 as the next international window is set to be open from March 20 and ends at 28. Therefore, the FIFA rankings are estimated to be released after this window in the beginning of April.
An international window follows the FIFA calendar in which specific matches are scheduled to be played. The windows are applicable to each and every Confederation, hence, nations are required to pay attention to these matches to secure a spot in FIFA World football rankings.
