Wales look down on England for first time in rankings

LONDON (Reuters) - Wales moved above their more illustrious neighbours England in FIFA's football world rankings for the first time on Thursday, their ninth-placed spot putting them one ahead of the English.

(Reuters)

England, World Cup winners in 1966, dropped two places in the latest version of the rankings, while perennial minnows Wales stayed put.

The top seven spots remained unchanged with Argentina on top, Belgium second and 2014 World Cup champions Germany third.

The rankings, introduced in 1992, are determined by a points system which takes into account results of all FIFA recognised full international matches over the past four years. Different weighting is applied, with most recent results counting for more.

The only climber in the top 10 was Chile, winners of the 2015 Copa America, moving from 10th to eighth to swap places with England.

Rankings: 1 Argentina (1442 points) 2 Belgium (1269) 3 Germany (1248) 4 Colombia (1224) 5 Brazil (1209) 6 Portugal (1186) 7 Romania (1176) 8 Chile (1149) 9 Wales (1146) 10 England (1143)

(Editing by Sudipto Ganguly)