体坛英语新闻：Brazil plummet to No.22 in FIFA rankings

RIO DE JANEIRO, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Brazil have slumped to a new historic low of No. 22 in the latest FIFA world rankings released by world football's governing body on Thursday.

Luiz Felipe Scolari's team paid the price for a lack of competitive matches by dropping three places since the last rankings update in April.

Since Scolari replaced Mano Menezes as Brazil's coach in November last year, the five-time World Cup champions have won just one match - a 4-0 victory over Bolivia in April.

They will have the chance to climb up the ranking this month with Sunday's friendly against France followed by the Confederations Cup, involving the winners of FIFA's continental champions and European runners up Italy.

Reigning World Cup and European champions Spain remain the top-ranked nation followed by Germany, Argentina and Croatia.

The Netherlands climbed four places to No. 5 while England dropped two spots to No. 9.

Rankings:

1 Spain 1614 points

2 Germany 1416

3 Argentina 1287

4 Croatia 1222

5 Netherlands 1158

6 Portugal 1137

7 Colombia 1123

8 Italy 1097

9 England 1095

10 Ecuador 1066