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SYDNEY - New Zealand's All Whites have eased up four places in the latest Fifa world soccer rankings released today.
Despite not playing any games, the All Whites have moved from 94th to 90th position, well off their best ranking of 47th in August 2002 but still nowhere near their recent nadir of 156th in September last year.
Australia , following their 3-0 win over Qatar in their World Cup qualifier last week, jumped 10 places up the ladder to 38th place.
Pim Verbeek's Socceroos were among the biggest improvers for February, with most of the other movement among teams that competed in the African Nations Cup.
Australia also moved up 10 spots in Asia, to be the second-ranked team in the zone behind Japan.
ANC hosts Ghana climbed 29 places to joint 14th following their third place finish at the tournament to be the highest ranked African nation, while Cameroon, who lost 1-0 to Egypt in the final, vaulted eight places to 17th.
Egypt are ranked behind Ghana, Cameroon and Ivory Coast at 29th - an improvement of six spots.
The top 10 remains largely unchanged due to few competitive internationals in South America and Europe over the last month.
Argentina stayed atop the rankings for the fifth-straight month, and Greece's rise of one place to 10th was the only change in the top 10.
Brazil, Italy, Spain and Germany rounded out the top five, followed by the Czech Republic, France, Portugal, Netherlands and Greece.
Other than Argentina, Brazil and Ghana, the top 20 was filled out by European teams, with England rising one spot to 11th after beating Switzerland 2-1 in Fabio Capello's first match as manager.
The next world rankings will be released on March 12.
- NZPA
