Germany climbs in FIFA ranking and gets closer to being a seeded team in the World Cup

Spain remains at the top of the FIFA world ranking, according to the classification published this Friday. Germany, for its part, has managed to move up and is emerging as one of the seeded teams for the final draw of the World Cup, which will take place on December 5. Germany climbed two positions, ranking 10th, after obtaining consecutive victories in the World Cup qualifying phase against Luxembourg and Northern Ireland. It is important to remember that Germany suffered a defeat in its first qualifying match last month against Slovakia. Croatia, runner-up in the 2018 World Cup and semi-finalist in the 2022 edition, dropped to number 11 after drawing one of their matches against the Czech Republic last week.

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The 12 seeded countries in the draw of 48 teams will be made up of the three co-hosts: United States, Canada and Mexico, in addition to the nine teams directly qualified with the updated FIFA ranking from November.

Italy, currently ranked number 9, will likely head to the European playoffs in March as runners-up in a qualifying group led by Norway, meaning the team ranked number 10 should be guaranteed to avoid other seeded teams in the tournament draw to be held from June 11 to July 19.

Spain leads the ranking, followed by Argentina, current world champion, France in third place, England, Portugal, Netherlands, Brazil and Belgium in eighth place. The seeds for the World Cup draw will follow the FIFA ranking through pots 2 and 3, while pot 4 will include the six teams directly qualified with the lowest ranking, in addition to six wildcards that will await the winners of the playoffs in March. Four European teams will advance through the playoffs, and two more spots will be offered in a global group of six non-European teams, which will include Bolivia and New Caledonia. The October classification confirmed the clashes for a group of African playoffs next month, which will determine which team advances to the intercontinental game. The pairings are Nigeria against Gabon and Cameroon against Congo.