Republic up a place in FIFA world rankings

The Republic of Ireland's international soccer team has risen one place, to 14th in the world, in the FIFA world soccer rankings…

The Republic of Ireland's international soccer team has risen one place, to 14th in the world, in the FIFA world soccer rankings.

Brazil topped the monthly ranking of the top 20 teams in the world, published today. France are in second place and Spain in third.

England retained their position as eighth in the world.

The  standings are based on a statistical analysis of countries' results over eight years, weighted according to how recently the matches were played, the strength of the opponents and the importance of each match.