The Norwegian men’s national football team has moved up five places in the FIFA rankings after a good result in the Nations League. That is the highest position in seven years.

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Norway has climbed to 36th place in rating top of the best national teams in the world. You have to go back to 2015, the last time the national team was so high. At that time they were in the order of 34.

This is a good result in the Nations League (10 of 12 points against Sweden x2, Slovenia and Serbia) which means that the Norwegian national team passes Canada, Hungary, Cameroon, Egypt and Scotland.

A total of 24 teams will compete in the European Cup to be held in Germany in the summer of 2024. Germany qualified as hosts, leaving 23 places remaining.

No less than 20 of these are awarded through a regular EC qualification.

• The qualifiers were divided into ten groups, the best two in each group went to EC.
• The group draw will take place on October 9 in Frankfurt, a month after the Nations League group stage finishes.

The draw for the EC qualification will take place on 9 October. Which seed Norway gets depends on the Nations League rankings, and currently Norway is close to dream seeding.

The national team would likely end up at the second highest level, and thus could only qualify with only one major nation as a contender. In comparison, Sweden will most likely end up in level three after a weak Nations League summer.

The last time the men’s national football team qualified for the championship – EC 2000 – Norway was the top seed. In all the European Cup qualifiers since then, Norway has been seeded third.

– Winning the League of Nations pools pays off big. That means a lot for EC seeding and sweepstakes. In addition, it provides an extra chance to qualify for the EC, said Truls Dæhli, acting director of the elite NFF.

On two occasions, Norway has been in second place in the FIFA rankings. First in October 1993 and then in July 1995. The weakest position was in 2017, when Norway was ranked 88th.

Brazil retains its place as the world’s best national team. Copa América winners Argentina are up one more place from the previous rankings, after they moved up one place after the championship as well. They are in 3rd position. European champions Italy dropped from 6th to 7th.

Top Ten Countries:

1) Brazil 1837.56, 2) Belgium 1821.92, 3) Argentina 1770.65, 4) France 1764.85, 5) England 1737.46, 6) Spain 1716.93, 7) Italy 1713.86, 8) Netherlands 1679.41, 9) Portugal 1678.65, 10) Denmark 1665.47.

Correction: The first VG whose weakest position was 83rd in 2016. That’s not true – its weakest position was in 2017, at 88th. Error fixed on 23/06/2022 at 15:44.