The presence of Egypt in the top ten of FIFA’s world rankings proved short-lived as the African Nations Cup winners slipped from 10th to 17th in the new list released during the last week.

Moreover, Egypt jumped 14 grades last month owing to their third consecutive Nations Cup triumph but, because of the vagaries of the ranking system where year-old results fall out of the reckoning, they have now dropped down the rankings.

In the meantime, Victory at Wembley later on Wednesday in a friendly game against England, up one place to eighth, would improve the position of Egypt which is still Africa’s highest-ranked team.

With few games were played during the last month there is little change at the top where Spain, Brazil, Netherlands and Italy remain the top four, though Germany climbed one place to fifth.

Greece jumped two places from 12th as they returned to the top 10 for the first time since June 2008.

FIFA rankings (last month’s positions in brackets):

1 (1) Spain

2 (2) Brazil

3 (3) Netherlands

4 (4) Italy

5 (6) Germany

6 (5) Portugal

7 (7) France

8 (9) England

9 (8) Argentina

10 (12) Greece