Mexico returns to the top 10 of the FIFA rankings

Mexico's men's national soccer team returned to the top 10 of the FIFA rankings despite suffering two terrible setbacks against the United States in the Gold Cup and CONCACAF Nations League finals. FIFA updated its ranking of national teams where Mexico appears in 9th place while the biggest surprise is that the United States moved up 10 places to 10th position.

Mexico moved up two places in the FIFA ranking after being surpassed by the United States in the CONCACAF Nations League finals and later in the Gold Cup final, where the Stars and Stripes had an alternative team to the starting lineup. To determine the FIFA ranking, a ranking system has been used since August 2018 in which points are added and subtracted to the winning and losing teams of each match instead of averaging the points for the given period.

Thus, Mexico ranked 9th with 1658 points, while the United States achieved the 10th position with 1648 units. The first place in the ranking is occupied by Belgium, even though they were unable to win the European Championship after losing to Italy in the quarterfinals.

After Belgium, in second place in the FIFA ranking is Brazil, finalists of the Copa América; in third place are the world champions, France, despite the fact that they were the great disappointment of the European continental tournament when they lost to Switzerland. England, European runners-up, remain in fourth place, just ahead of Italy, who beat them in the final of the European Championship at Wembley.

Argentina, after beating Brazil in the Gold Cup at the Maracana, moved up two places to sixth place. Spain, semifinalists at the European Championship, ranked seventh, while Portugal took ninth place in the FIFA ranking.

Top 10 of the FIFA rankings

Belgium 1,822 points
Brazil 1,798
France 1,762 points
England 1,753
Italy 1,745
Argentina 1,714
Spain 1,680
Portugal 1,662
Mexico 1,658
USA 1,648

FIFA sanctions Mexico for "homophobic chanting"

FIFA confirmed to CNN that it sanctioned Mexico with a fine of more than US$65,000, in addition to the fact that the team will have to play its next two official games behind closed doors, due to "homophobic chants by its fans" during two Olympic qualifying games last March.

According to CNN, in an e-mail, a FIFA spokesman said that the Disciplinary Committee had made the decision after the games played between Mexico and the Dominican Republic and the United States in Guadalajara. The spokesperson also indicated that FIFA opened another process against the Mexican Football Federation (FMF) for homophobic chants by fans at a friendly match of the national team against Iceland, held in Arlington, Texas on May 29.

This Friday, the president of the FMF, Yon de Luisa, confirmed at a press conference that the entity had received notification of the sanction from FIFA and assured that both the local Federation and the League clubs have taken actions since September 2019 to prevent chants of this type from being registered in stadiums. "However, this has not been enough," the federative indicated and called on fans to stop with the practice of using the expression p**o, which is used as an offense in Mexican soccer games and also in national team matches.

"On behalf of all the fans who want to see our national team competing in the next World Cup in Qatar, let's stop, let's stop now, please. The p**o shout, in addition to being discriminatory, far from identifying us as great fans, which we are, is taking us away from our national team," said Yon de Luisa.

He also added that "what for some seems to be fun, today I have news for you: it is not, because it is driving them away from the stadiums and it is driving them away from our national team". Yon de Luisa also indicated that the FMF will continue to work with its partners in educational efforts to prevent shouting from continuing in the states and leading to more sanctions.