England have risen to fifth in FIFA’s world rankings while Belgium have edged ahead of world champions France to take sole ownership of top spot.
Gareth Southgate’s side swap places with Uruguay after an unbeaten October in the UEFA Nations League where they claimed an impressive 3-2 win over Spain and drew with World Cup finalists Croatia.
Those results, coupled with Uruguay’s back-to-back losses against South Korea and Japan, see England move up to fifth on 1,619 points.
Belgium and France had been tied at the top last month and while both sides won one game and drew another in October, the Belgians moved ahead by a single point under the formula for calculating the rankings.
Brazil, one of only two non-European sides in the top 10 along with Uruguay, remain third, followed by Croatia.
Wales are up one place to 18th but the Republic of Ireland are down to 33rd after successive defeats. Northern Ireland drop six places to 34th, with Scotland down one to 40th.
Gibraltar were the biggest movers after recording their first competitive wins. They claimed back-to-back victories over Armenia and Lichtenstein respectively and rise eight places to their best ranking of 190th.
Madagascar, who earlier this month qualified for their first African Nations Cup finals, climb into the top 100 for the first time since 2002.
Tunisia, 22nd, are the highest ranked African team and Iran [30th] the top Asian side.
FIFA World Rankings
1. Belgium (1733 points)
2. France (1732)
3. Brazil (1669)
4. Croatia (1635)
5. England (1619)
6. Uruguay (1617)
7. Portugal (1616)
8. Switzerland (1598)
9. Spain (1594)
10. Denmark (1584)
18. Wales (1538)
33. Republic of Ireland (1473)
34. Northern Ireland (1472)
40. Scotland (1435)
