All Whites climb into top 100 on Fifa world rankings

All Whites coach Anthony Hudson.

The All Whites are the biggest movers on the latest Fifa World Rankings.

The Anthony Hudson coached side, who won the OFC Nations Cup in Papua New Guinea in June, have climbed 54 places on the rankings to 93rd on the Fifa World Rankings. It is the highest ranking for the team under Hudson in his two years in charge.

The All Whites, who will face several of the world's best teams next year when they compete in the Confederations Cup in Russia, will have a number of opportunities to improve on that ranking with a number of fixtures expected for the national side in the next 18 months.

They will pay two games, home and away, against New Caledonia in November, with two more to follow against Fiji next March, in the next stage of OFC World Cup qualifying.

The All Whites were the biggest movers in the July edition of the world rankings, with Puerto Rico climbing 46 places to 112th, while Belize dropped 50 places to 164th.

The next highest ranked Oceania side is New Caledonia, who the All Whites beat 1-0 in the semifinal of the OFC Nations Cup in Papua New Guinea. They are now 161st.

The top five teams in the world are all unchanged with Argentina leading from Belgium, Colombia, Germany and Chile. Portugal, who won Euro 2016 defeating France 1-0 in the final, have moved up to sixth, one ahead of the hosts of that competition.

But the big talking point on this side of the world is the rise of the All Whites and what their markedly improved ranking will mean for their Road to Russia.