Republic of Ireland have dropped one place to 15th in the latest FIFA world rankings issued today.
The news comes ahead of Ireland's world cup friendly encounter with world champions Brazil at Lansdowne Road tonight. Brazil maintain their number one spot in the rankings with France second and Spain third.
England, who take on Euro 2004 hosts Portugal in their international friendly in Faro tonight, moved up one place to seventh, while Portugal remain 17th.
Leading FIFA world soccer rankings
(January's position in brackets):
1. (1) Brazil 846 points
2. (2) France 828
3. (3) Spain 795
4. (4) Netherlands 749
5. (7) Mexico 742
6. (5) Argentina 741
7. (8=) England 740
8. (6) Czech Republic 739
9. (8=) Turkey 737
10. (10) Italy 731
11. (11) United States 729
12. (12) Germany 727
13. (14=) Cameroon 720
14. (13) Denmark 712
15. (14=) Ireland 709
16. (16) Belgium 693
17. (17=) Portugal 681
18. (17=) Costa Rica 679
19. (20) Croatia 676
20. (19) Sweden 674
Note: FIFA's standings are based on a statistical analysis of countries' results over eight years, weighted according to how recently the matches were played, the strength of the opponents and the importance of each match.