The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) announced, on its official website, the new world rankings for women’s national teams, today, Tuesday.
FIFA issued its new classification after 183 international matches were held during the last period on the international agenda, which included a large number of friendly confrontations, in addition to another group of matches within the qualifiers for the 2027 World Cup in Brazil in both Europe and Africa.
Spain strengthened its position at the top after playing two matches outside its home country against the United States, which is ranked second in the new classification, where it won the first match and tied the second, increasing the lead difference by about 80 points, while Germany comes in third place behind them, after winning its two friendly matches on its soil and reducing the gap that separates it from second place.
England, Japan, France, Brazil, Sweden and Canada ranked fourth through ninth, respectively, while Denmark broke into the list of top ten teams, after being in tenth place.
Denmark achieved a win and a draw in its two matches away from home against Canada, giving it a narrow lead over the Netherlands and North Korea, which fell to 11th and 12th places, respectively.
Thanks to this progress, the Scandinavian team returned to the top ten in the rankings for the first time since 2010.
The 2026 Women's Africa Cup of Nations, which was held last July and August, accounted for a large part of the activity influencing this classification update.
An African team in particular stood out, namely the Malawi team, which rose 49 places at once, to become ranked 104th in the world, achieving the largest rise in terms of positions and the largest gain in terms of points, after reaching the final of the African Nations, achieving a historic rise to the Women’s World Cup, and recording an amazing series of victories in this tournament and the Olympic Games qualifiers, where it gained 158.44 points, achieving an unprecedented record.
Other teams from the Confederation of African Football (CAF), the European Union (UEFA) and the Oceania Confederation also made remarkable progress, as Cameroon, the new African champion, advanced to 62nd place in the world, jumping nine places, as did Tanzania, which advanced 11 places to be in 111th place, and Burkina Faso, which is now in 109th place, rising 9 places.
The same also applies to the Vanuatu national team, which advanced 8 places to rank 100th in the world, while Slovenia achieved the best ranking in its history, similar to Malawi, after it became ranked 36th in the world.
The rankings also witnessed a significant decline for a number of CAF teams, led by three teams, the most prominent of which was the Egyptian team, which now ranked 113th in the world, falling 14 places, after it exited the Women’s African Cup of Nations after losing in its three matches in the group stage, achieving the largest decline in terms of positions in this latest update.
The Zimbabwe national team also dropped nine places to rank 136th in the world, while the Democratic Republic of Congo was ranked 114th, after falling 8 places.
Eric Ten Hag, former coach of the English football team Manchester United, said that Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo “let the team down” during his time in charge at the club, claiming that the player was not preparing for matches properly.
Ten Hag also claimed that the promises made by Manchester United's owners were not fulfilled, before he was dismissed from his position in 2024, shortly after he signed a new contract with the club.
Ronaldo returned to Manchester United for a second period in August 2021, and was already at the club when Ten Hag took over as coach of the team before the start of the 2022-2023 season.
But the relationship between the two parties quickly deteriorated, as Ronaldo refused to participate as a substitute during a match that ended with Manchester United’s victory over Tottenham Hotspur in October, before the Portuguese star came out in a television interview to publicly criticize the club.
The following month, Ronaldo's contract was terminated by mutual consent between the two parties.
In an interview with “The Athletic” website, Ten Hag said: “Ronaldo let the team down, and he let me down too, because we made our plans based on his presence.”
He added in his statements, which were reported by the British news agency (PA Media): “It is clear that he is one of the best players in the history of football, and I had a lot of respect for him. But at that time, as a manager, I should have made a rational decision and relied on the players I admired.”
Ten Hag claimed that Ronaldo was withdrawing from training, and did not complete the running quota imposed on the players following the 0-4 loss to Brentford at the beginning of his tenure in charge.
“I confronted him about it,” Ten Hag explained. I told him repeatedly: (Ronnie, everyone wants to work for you to get you to the right position, but if you are not able to be inside the penalty area, you will not be able to score). "He was not able to do that."
He added: “It is wrong to say that I expected him to apply defensive pressure until exhaustion, as he simply was not capable of that. He did not run whether the team had possession of the ball or lost it, and the reason for that was that he did not prepare himself as required.”
Ten Hag was dismissed from his position as coach of Manchester United in October 2024, while the team was ranked 14th in the English Premier League, just 5 months after winning the FA Cup and extending his contract with the club.
The Dutch coach stated, in the context of his discussions with the club’s owners about his new contract, that he had received promises that were not fulfilled, and that he felt “embarrassed” when Scott McTominay was sold to the Italian club Napoli without his approval.
“They promised me loyalty, they promised me support, they promised me communication, that we would get along,” Ten Hag noted. “We discussed the problems, but they did not fulfill their promises.”
Ten Hag concluded his speech by saying: “I told them: (Don’t sell Scott McTominay). But in the end they sold it. “I felt, of course, very embarrassed and very disappointed.”
