Croatia defeat could bring England new rankings blow

England's miserable week could suffer a further low on Friday when FIFA unveil their latest international rankings for use in Sunday's World Cup qualification draw.

England were ranked 11th in the world last month and ninth in Europe, a position that would just be enough to earn them a place in the group of nine top seeds for the European section of the draw.

Their place in the top nine could come under threat however following the 3-2 loss at home to Croatia that ended England's bid to qualify for Euro 2008.

England, who sacked manager Steve McClaren on Thursday, will gain some ranking points from last Friday's win over Austria but the friendly status of that match means it receives less weight than the competitive matches played during the past month.

Greece, ranked 12th in the European standings and trailing England by 103 points, look well placed to go in front after winning their final two Euro 2008 qualifiers this month.

Romania, ranked 10th last month, could also climb above England although they managed to win just one of their two qualifiers.

Scotland's chances of sneaking past their southern neighbours appear to have vanished following the 2-1 defeat at home to Italy that ended the Scots' own European Championship hopes.

FIFA's complicated ranking system includes all official matches played in the last four years and is therefore hard to accurately predict.

As well as gaining points from the previous month, teams will lose points gained four years ago while other points from intervening years decrease in value.