That single result, coming against a team ranked 120 places higher than them, and not only that but coming in a regional qualifier rather than a friendly and being part of a strong confederation in UEFA, has seen San Marino’s points tally rocket from a stone cold zero up to the startling total of 55.
This newly acquired tally was enough to see San Marino climb 28 places in the rankings to be joint 180th along with such greats as Bermuda and Cambodia. Not only that, but they are no longer even the worst team in Europe, with Andorra (another former Worst in the World) taking over that particular honour sitting in 201st place.
Another European minnow, the Faroe Islands, were the highest climbers in the rankings following their victory over World Cup last 16 side Greece recently.
San Marino’s meteoric rise leaves just one lone nation sitting lonely at the bottom of the world, the tiny Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan who are no on their own as the 209th best team in the world (more on them in the coming weeks). Sitting just above them in 208th are Anguilla, a team whose only ranking points are due to disappear in the summer of 2015 as they become over four years old, so Bhutan may not be on their won for long.
Similar loss of ranking points could also see any of Cook Islands, Somalia, Djibouti, Cayman Islands and Eritrea slipping to the bottom of the rankings next year too, so in spite of the loss of our main participant, given the regular nature of European action, there will still be plenty to focus on in the coming months.
For now though, all hail to San Marino and they wonderful achievement.
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