VIENNA, June 4 (Reuters) - Austria have received a boost four days ahead of their opening Euro 2008 game by breaking into the top 100 teams in the FIFA world rankings.
In the latest list published on Wednesday, the co-hosts
climbed nine places from 101st to 92nd on the back of a 5-1
victory over Malta and a 1-1 draw with Nigeria in recent
friendlies.
Despite their rise, however, the co-hosts, who kick off
their Euro 2008 campaign against Croatia in Vienna on Sunday,
remain comfortably the worst team at the tournament and are
still rated only the 43rd-best team in Europe.
The next-worse are the other country who did not have to
qualify, Switzerland, ranked 44th in the world and 26th in
Europe.
The worst of the qualifiers are Sweden, who dropped seven
places to 30th after losing 1-0 at home to Ukraine on Sunday.
Both co-hosts have a slightly misleading ranking because
they have played only friendlies in the last two years but
Austria would be lagging behind under any system.
Although they were as high as 22nd 10 years ago and would
have been even higher in the pre-ranking days when they topped
their first-round group above Brazil in the 1978 World Cup, it
has been a downward spiral since.
Most bookmakers rate them 100-1 shots to win Euro 2008 while
they are 8-1 ON not to get out of Group B, which also contains
Germany, Croatia and Poland.
The only other host nation not to have reached the knockout
phase was Belgium, who co-hosted the 2000 event with the
Netherlands.
The highest-ranked European team to miss out on Euro 2008
are England, ninth in the world and seventh in Europe, followed
by Scotland (17th/12th) and Bulgaria (18th/13th).
The only teams in FIFA's top 13 not to be taking part are
the top two, Argentina and Brazil, and the leading African side,
Cameroon, who are 13th.
