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THE Socceroos have climbed to an all-time high of 16 in the latest FIFA rankings released today.
Pim Verbeek's men enjoyed an unbeaten trio of World Cup qualifiers last month and their form has seen them rewarded.
It is the highest Australia has ever been placed in FIFA's international ratings system which ranks 203 member nations of FIFA.
"We are delighted at this new. Rankings are not the 'be all and end all' of football but they are certainly an indicator of our progress.
"The more competitive games we play, the greater the opportunity to improve our position in the world rankings and the more match hardened the team becomes.
"This is a great reward for the Qantas Socceroos form in the qualifying rounds for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
"Once again, we congratulate Pim Verbeek and the players for their efforts," said Football Federation Australia CEO Ben Buckley.
The Socceroos became the second team to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup (excluding the host nation) in early June, and finished the fourth stage of qualification with 6 wins and 2 draws against strong rivals Japan, Qatar, Bahrain and Uzbekistan.
Buckley said he had recently returned from a brief trip to South Africa and said that it will be a "fantastic" tournament.
http://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/10669...socceroos.aspx
FIFA'S TOP 50 (c) FIFA (I have put up the Top 20)
Nation/Previous Ranking/Points Gained or Lost
1 Brazil 1672 4 384
2 Spain 1590 -1 -171
3 Netherlands 1379 -1 -63
4 Italy 1229 0 -63
5 Germany 1207 -2 -171
6 Russia 1161 3 -6
7 England 1135 -1 -90
8 Argentina 1091 -1 -112
9 France 1082 1 15
10 Croatia 1031 -2 -169
11 Greece 1001 6 79
12 USA 983 2 36
13 Switzerland 930 3 -1
14 Serbia 925 6 55
15 Denmark 909 9 73
16 Australia 886 13 107
17 Portugal 879 -6 -125
18 Côte d'Ivoire 874 20 129
19 Ukraine 869 0 -22
20 Uruguay 860 -3 -62