Norway’s men’s national football team moved up five places in the FIFA rankings after strong results in the Nations League. This is the best ranking in seven years.

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Norway move up to 36th place rankings on the best national teams in the world. We have to go back to 2015, the last time the national team was so high up. Then they were in 34th place.

It is the good results in the Nations League (10 points out of 12 against Sweden x2, Slovenia and Serbia) that make the Norwegian national team overtake Canada, Hungary, Cameroon, Egypt and Scotland .

A total of 24 teams will participate in the European Championships to be held in Germany in the summer of 2024. Germany has qualified as the host country, so there are 23 places left.

No less than 20 of them are awarded as part of the ordinary qualification for the European Championship.

• The qualifiers are divided into ten groups, the two best of each of them go to the European Championships.
• The group draw will take place on October 9 in Frankfurt, a month after the end of the Nations League group stage.

The draw for the European Championship qualifiers will take place on October 9. Norway’s ranking depends on the Nations League ranking, and right now Norway is aiming for a dream ranking.

The national team is likely to end up at the second-highest level, and therefore can get away with only one major nation as a contender. By comparison, Sweden will most likely find themselves in level three after their weak summer in the Nations League.

The last time the men’s national football team qualified for a championship – the European Championships in 2000 – Norway were the number one seed. In all European Championship qualifiers since then, Norway have been seeded in the third tier.

– Winning the Nations League group pays off. This means a lot for the classification and the draw of the European Championship. Moreover, it gives an extra chance to qualify for the European Championships, says Truls Dæhli, acting NFF elite director.

Norway have twice held second place in the FIFA rankings. First in October 1993 and later in July 1995. The weakest position was in 2017, when Norway was ranked 88th.

Brazil retain their place as the best national team in the world. Copa América winners Argentina move up another spot from the previous standings, having also climbed one spot after the championship. They are in 3rd place. Italy, European champion, goes from 6th to 7th place.

Top 10 nations:

1) Brazil 1837.56, 2) Belgium 1821.92, 3) Argentina 1770.65, 4) France 1764.85, 5) England 1737.46, 6) Spain 1716.93, 7) Italy 1713.86, 8) Netherlands 1679.41, 9) Portugal 1678.65, 10) Denmark 16.4

Correction: VG first stated that the weakest position was 83rd in 2016. This is not true – the weakest position was in 2017 at 88th. The error was corrected on 23.06.2022 at 3:44 p.m.