Australia Back In The Top 30

But their impressive run in the World Cup qualifiers - which sees them just one point away from qualifying - has pushed them up three places to 29th place again in the latest rankings out tonight.

At the top, Holland have sneaked into second place ahead of Germany but still behind Spain which has kept their grip on first place.

Italy are in fourth slot, Brazil drop down one to fifth and England are now ranked sixth in the world, ahead of Argentina, Croatia, Russia and France.

Australia remain the number one ranked nation in Asia, but Japan closed the gap, moving up four places to 31st place, with third-placed Korea a long way behind in 46th place.

FIFA's TOP 50 RANKED NATIONS (c) FIFA

1	Spain	1761	0		32
2	Netherlands	1442	1		82
3	Germany	1378	-1		16
4	Italy	1292	1		21
5	Brazil	1288	-1		7
6	England	1225	1		52
7	Argentina	1203	-1		8
8	Croatia	1200	0		49
9	Russia	1167	0		50
10	France	1067	0		-7
11	Portugal	1004	0		-9
12	Turkey	964	2		41
13	Paraguay	961	4		55
14	USA	947	1		28
15	Czech Republic	943	-3		-25
16	Switzerland	931	2		48
17	Greece	922	-4		-5
17	Uruguay	922	-1		13
19	Ukraine	891	3		59
20	Serbia	870	3		51
21	Cameroon	855	-2		-16
22	Scotland	840	2		25
23	Bulgaria	838	-3		-2
24	Denmark	836	5		46
25	Israel	827	-4		-9
26	Mexico	822	-1		19
27	Northern Ireland	820	0		25
28	Romania	790	0		-2
29	Australia	779	3		3
30	Nigeria	770	0		-11
31	Japan	766	4		17
31	Sweden	766	2		-3
33	Bosnia-Herzegovina	763	5		26
34	Republic of Ireland	762	0		1
35	Honduras	761	4		25
36	Ghana	750	-5		-29
37	Chile	746	-11		-50
38	Côte d'Ivoire	745	-2		2
39	Poland	722	1		-2
40	Egypt	719	-3		-23
41	Costa Rica	694	0		-27
42	Slovakia	693	5		67
43	Hungary	687	0		25
44	Ecuador	686	-2		-9
45	Colombia	678	-1		18
46	Korea Republic	654	0		13
47	Norway	638	-2		-4
48	Gabon	616	0		0
49	Finland	614	2		23
50	Burkina Faso	608	7		49