France top FIFA rankings, Yugoslavia up to 11th

Zurich, SWITZERLAND (agencies) - France, the world and European champions, finished the year ranked World No. 1 for the first time since the FIFA rankings began in 1993. France has 812 points in the rankings released Wednesday, followed by Argentina with 802, and Brazil, last year's No. 1, with 793. Yugoslavia climbed one place to No. 11.

The laurels for the "Mover of the Year", which weighs up the points won in the course of the year against a team's strength, go to Costa Rica (30th, up 30), ahead of Australia (48th, up 24) and Honduras (25th, up 21). Assessed on the average points score a team attains in their seven best matches of the year, the "Team of the Year" is Honduras with an average of 39.7 points per game. The Central Americans secure the title by a clear margin, in front of Colombia (38.4 points) and Costa Rica (37.8 points).

A total of 934 international games were played in 2001, down from 1,043 in 2000.

FIFA top 25

 
       1. France          812 pts 
       2. Argentina       802 
       3. Brazil          793 
       4. Portugal        741 
       5. Colombia        739 
       6. Italy           734 
       7. Spain           730 
       8. Netherlands     722 
       9. Mexico          714 
      10. England         712 
      11. YUGOSLAVIA      710 
      12. Germany         707 
      13. Paraguay        691 
      14. Czech Republic  689 
      15. Romania         688 
      16. Sweden          676 
      17. Denmark         672 
          Ireland         672 
      19. Croatia         668 
      20. Belgium         666 
      21  Russia          665 
      22  Uruguay         664 
      23  Turkey          663 
      24  United States   662 
      25  Slovenia        650