Some good news: It seems like FIFA is putting pressure on the Iranian government over their ban of 4 national team players for wearing wristbands reflecting their support for opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.
FIFA wrote to the Iranian football federation on Wednesday to ask for answers over alleged punishments meted out to several of their players involved.
It has been reported that they had been told they would never play for their country again because of their stance.
A FIFA spokesperson told AFP on Wednesday that they had written a letter asking for more information. "We wrote a letter to the Iranian Federation to ask for some answers and clarification regarding the press reports over what happened to some of the Iranian players following the qualifier with South Korea on June 17," the spokesperson said.
Let's hope that pressure from FIFA will allow the 4 banned players to be reinstated to their positions in the Iranian national team.
The 134 international matches played in the last few weeks, including 94 qualifiers for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, have seen dramatic changes in the FIFA World Ranking.
Spain continue to lead the way by some distance, but among the chasing pack, Germany (2nd, up 1) and Italy (3rd, down 1), the Netherlands (4th, up 1) and Brazil (5th, down 1), Argentina (6th, up 1) and Croatia (7th, down 1), and Russia (8th, up 1) and the Czech Republic (9th, down 1) have all swapped places. England (10th, up 4) are back in the top ten, sharing tenth position with non-movers Portugal.
This month’s major movers among the top 50 are Switzerland (27th, up 18), Serbia (30th, up 10), Ecuador (31st, up 11) and Slovakia (45th, up 15). Also returning to the top 50 along with Slovakia are Mali (49th, up 4). There is no change to the top 50 in terms of regional representation, as Senegal (51st, down 2) and Norway (54th, down 15) have dropped out of this group.
Jamaica have made the biggest leap forward. Crucial 1-0 victories in FIFA World Cup qualifiers against better-ranked opponents from Mexico and Honduras, added to victory in a friendly, have catapulted the Reggae Boyz from 116th to 83rd place. Israel (15th, up 1), Montenegro (115th, up 2) and the Philippines (157th, up 8) also enjoyed a successful month and have attained their highest ranking to date.
A little piece of history has been made at the bottom of the table: Timor-Leste, who have only been affiliated to FIFA since 2005, achieved the first success of their short footballing existence by drawing 2-2 with Cambodia, thus climbing to 198th position.
The next FIFA World Ranking will be published on 17 December 2008.
The shortlist of the FIFA World Player of the Year award has been released.
Michael Ballack, Miroslav Klose, Philippe Lahm and Jens Lehmann are the 4 German players nominated for this year's prize which will be awarded in Zurich on December 18. Ballack and Lehmann play in the English Premier League for Chelsea and Arsenal while Klose and Lahm ply their trade in the German Bundesliga for Werder Bremen and Bayern Munich respectively.
However, this year's competition is expected to come down to a contest between Fabio Cannavaro, captain of World Cup winners Italy, and Arsenal's French striker Thierry Henry, a losing finalist in both the Champions League and the World Cup.
The head coaches and captains of all national teams will now vote for their best players from the shortlist.
FIFA World Player of the Year shortlist:
Adriano (Inter Milan, Brazil), Michael Ballack (Chelsea, Germany), Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus, Italy), Fabio Cannavaro (Real Madrid, Italy), Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United, Portugal), Petr Cech (Chelsea, Czech Republic), Deco (Barcelona, Portugal), Didier Drogba (Chelsea, Ivory Coast), Michael Essien (Chelsea, Ghana), Samuel Eto'o (Barcelona, Cameroon), Luis Figo (Inter Milan, Portugal), Gennaro Gattuso (AC Milan, Italy), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool, England), Thierry Henry (Arsenal, France), Kaka (AC Milan, Brazil), Miroslav Klose (Werder Bremen, Germany), Philippe Lahm (Bayern Munich, Germany), Frank Lampard (Chelsea, England), Jens Lehmann (Arsenal, Germany), Alessandro Nesta (AC Milan, Italy), Andrea Pirlo (AC Milan, Italy), Franck Ribery (Marseille, France), Juan Roman Riquelme (Villarreal, Argentina), Ronaldinho (Barcelona, Brazil), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United, England), Tomas Rosicky (Arsenal, Czech Republic), Andriy Shevchenko (Chelsea, Ukraine), Lilian Thuram (Barcelona, France), Patrick Vieira (Inter Milan, France), Zinedine Zidane (retired, France).
