New Zealand’s men’s national team will go into 2026 rated #87 after dropping one place in the FIFA men’s world rankings.
Of the All Whites’ group opponents at the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup, only Egypt changed their rankings, falling one spot to #35 in the world.
Belgium (#8) and Iran (#20) held their positions.
The December rankings revision took into account the results of 42 international fixtures and were the first rankings released since the draw for next year’s FIFA Men’s World Cup, to be co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada, was made.
Under head coach Darren Bazeley, the New Zealand team have climbed 18 places since he took the role.
New Zealand’s position of 82nd in early 2025 was the highest since the team was 79th in 2013.
The 2-1 loss to Colombia and the 2-0 loss to Ecuador were included in the latest revision, with Colombia holding their #13 status and Ecuador staying in the #23 position.
The ranking revision maintains the positive trend for New Zealand that started with the appointment of Danny Hay as national coach in late 2019, and has continued with his successor, Bazeley.
Bazeley became the interim head coach in February 2023, and was appointed in the role in July 2023.
The highest position ever achieved by New Zealand was 47th (in August 2002); the lowest was 161st (April-May 2016). The team leapt to 88th in late 2016 but declined to 122nd by late 2019.
Spain have held their top spot in the overall rankings, ahead of Argentina, France and England.
The last five years
How the rankings are calculated
Points are allocated to teams from their most recent games and are weighted using the following criteria:
Result of the match.
Home v away, or neutral ground.
Importance of the match.
Difference in ranking between the teams.
Beating a highly-rated team, away, and in a tournament, rather than a friendly, can boost a team’s momentum up the rankings.
A win over a lowly-rated team can have little impact.
Winning or losing, of course, is the most important criterion, but goal difference and goals scored are also taken into account, as is shown in the following table.
READ MORE: The methodology used to rank teams >>>>>
Oceania rankings
The ratings of OFC nations, and movement since last rankings:
87 (-1) New Zealand
150 (-1) New Caledonia
152 Solomon Islands
155 Fiji
157 Tahiti
160 Vanuatu
170 Papua New Guinea
184 American Samoa
186 Cook Islands
188 Samoa
197 Tonga
Current top 10 teams
The leading international men’s teams, as ranked by FIFA, are:
1 Spain
2 Argentina
3 France
4 England
5 Brazil
6 Portugal
7 Netherlands
8 Belgium
9 Germany
10 Croatia
This story was first published on December 27, 2025
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