Fabio Capello’s England team moves up to seventh in World Rankings.

England have improved their standing in the FIFA World Rankings, climbing one place into seventh and leapfrogging European neighbours France.

While Spain, Brazil and the Netherlands retain the top three spots there was movement elsewhere in the top ten. Portugal moved up two places to fourth at the expense of Italy and Germany, who dropped to fifth and sixth respectively. Argentina remained in ninth and Croatia claimed the final spot in the top ten after a two-month absence.

Further down the rankings, England’s South Africa 2010 Group C opponents all saw movement. The USA, who are first-up for the Three Lions in Rustenburg, rose two places to 16th, while Algeria also went in the right direction, rising five places to 27th.

England’s final Group C opponents, Slovenia, dropped two places to 29th.

The latest FIFA rankings took into account the results of 47 matches, including England’s recent 3-1 victory over Africa Cup of Nations Champions Egypt, taking the number of international ‘A’ matches played in 2010 to 145.