Steve McClaren's recent travails in failing to qualify for the European Championships have already had repercussions for his eventual successor as England are now set to miss out on a seeding place at Sunday's World Cup draw
Defeats at the hands of Croatia and Russia and have seen England's Fifa ranking slip to 12th and so out of the top nine European teams.


Gone but not forgotten: McClaren's legacy is a tougher World Cup campaign for his successor
Eight groups of six teams and one of five provide Europe's entrants for the 2010 tournament to be held in South Africa, with the top nine teams automatically qualifying and the eight best runners up entering a play-off.

All of which means England's World Cup prospects have been damaged by their European Championship failure, with England guaranteed to have one of the better nations in their group, such as Germany, Italy, France - or even Croatia.

Defeat by Slaven Bilic's team has led to England being leapfrogged by Greece. Scotland have also fallen, one place to 14th, meaning they too will be among the second seeds and so cannot be drawn in the same group as England.

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland have risen four places to 32 and have overtaken the Republic of Ireland, who drop to three places to 35th.

Wales' ranking remains unchanged in 58th spot.

Argentina, meanwhoile, continue as the top-ranked country despite a 2-1 defeat by Colombia, but Brazil and Italy have closed the gap.

Spain are up two places to fourth and the Czech Republic are up three places to sixth.

South Africa have leaped 25 places to 77th while Belarus' 2-1 win over Holland in midweek sees them rise 34 places to 60th.

Fifa World Rankings
1 Argentina 1523pts (0 position change)
2 Brazil 1502 (0)
3 Italy 1498 (0)
4 Spain 1349 (+2)
5 Germany 1296 (0)
6 Czech Republic 1290 (+3)
7 France 1243 (-3 )
8 Portugal 1241 (0)
9 Holland 1170 (-2)
10 Croatia 1129 (0)
11 Greece 1114 (+3)
12 England 1113 (-1)
13 Romania 1088 (-1)
14 Scotland 990 (-1)
15 Mexico