England reaches record No. 3 FIFA ranking

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NYON, Switzerland, Aug. 8 (UPI) -- England reached an all-time best FIFA men's rank of No. 3 and Spain remains the world's top-ranked team in rankings updated Wednesday.

England's move to third, pushing Uruguay down one place to fourth, was the only change in the Top 10, a month after the rankings were juggled extensively in the wake of the UEFA 2012 tournament.

After such a high-profile event and with the Olympics, which has the under-23 teams in competition, there were only a handful of matches that affected the FIFA rankings.

Spain still has a strong hold on the top spot with 1,605 points and Germany, with 1,474 points, is No. 2. No. 3 England has 1,294 points -- the same as last month -- but Uruguay saw previous matches devalued and lost 61 ranking points to 1,236 and slips to fourth place.

Portugal sits in fifth with 1,213 followed by Italy (1,192) and Argentina (1,098). The Netherlands remains eighth with 1,053 points, just three ahead of No. 9 Croatia. Denmark, with 1,017 points, is 10th but only one point up on Russia, which is up two places this week to 11th.

The next FIFA rankings update is scheduled for Sept. 5 and will reflect the results of a series of friendly matches set for Aug. 15.

The FIFA world rankings are determined by points awarded from match results in a three-year period, with more recent games given greater weight. Teams get additional points for playing relatively strong opponents.