England slide in rankings

The news gets no better for Kevin Keegan

England's failure to reach the knockout stages at Euro 2000 has seen them slip to 15th in the new Fifa world rankings for football nations.

Kevin Keegan's men were 12th before the competition but they were unable to progress past the group stages after defeats against Portugal and Romania.

World Cup and newly crowned European champions France closed the gap but failed to overhaul Brazil at the top of the rankings.

France's victory over Italy in the Euro 2000 final on Sunday left them with 808 points, 17 behind the Brazilians.

The Czech Repbulic are third with 753.

The European championship created considerable movement at the top of the rankings. Holland were the biggest movers, jumping from 21st place to eighth.

Italy, who lost the Euro 2000 final to France on a golden goal, also moved into the top 10, climbing eight places to sixth.

Scotland are unchanged at 21st spot, while the Republic of Ireland climb one place to 39th.

There is no movement for either Northern Ireland in joint 95th with New Zealand or Wales, a lowly joint 102nd with Jordan.

Rankings

1 Brazil 825pts
2 France 808
3 Czech Republic 753
4 Spain 744
4 Argentina 744
6 Italy 732
7 Portugal 717
8 Netherlands 713
9 Germany 711
10 Norway 708.