World champions Argentina dethroned Brazil and returned to the top of the Fifa rankings on Thursday after a six-year gap.
Argentina, who won last year’s World Cup in Qatar by beating France in the final, achieved the No 1 spot after Lionel Scaloni’s side beat Panama 2-0 and Curacao 7-0 in friendlies.
France moved up one place to second after a 4-0 win over the Netherlands and 1-0 victory in Ireland in Euro 2024 qualifiers, while Brazil slipped to third after losing 2-1 away to Morocco in a friendly.
Belgium remained fourth, England were fifth followed by the Netherlands in sixth, Croatia seventh and Italy eighth. Portugal and Spain completed the top 10.
The Central African Republic were the biggest movers in the latest rankings, jumping 10 places to 122nd.
Meanwhile, Barcelona will finish repaying the debt taken on to finance a revamp of their stadium five years earlier than previously agreed after renegotiating a 1.5 billion euro ($1.6 billion) financial plan with Goldman Sachs GS.N and JP Morgan JPMN, according to reports in Spanish news website El Confidencial and newspaper La Vanguardia on Thursday.
The interest rate will be 5.5 per cent, according to the reports, although the club has insisted on being able to refinance the loan after five years, with the aim of renegotiating and lowering the rate once the stadium is up and running.
Under the new terms, Barca committed to making the final repayment in 2047 instead of 2052.
