Guss Hiddink to stay with Russia through 2010

Guss Hiddink is to every international team what Jürgen Klinsmann was to US Soccer. Meaning, every time a spot becomes available, his name is thrown into the ring.

But it looks like Hiddink has gone the way of Klinsmann and taken his name out of consideration for at least two years as he has signed a new contract with Russia through 2010. This, combined with their relatively easy group draw, means Russia has a good chance of making it to South Africa.

If he does, it will just be a continuation of his streak that includes the Netherlands (1998), South Korea (2002) and Australia (2006).

2018 World Cup getting closer to England

Fifa boss Sepp Blatter as personally assured Prime Minister Gordon Brown that rules will be changed to do away with the rotational hosting idea, thus allowing England and just about anyone else the chance to bid on the 2018 World Cup finals.

In addition, it now appears that the new rule will say that only the most recent confederation to host the finals will be barred from bidding. In the past, Blatter had suggested that the last two host confederations would be barred. This means that a return to the one in Europe, one somewhere else, one in Europe rotation is very likely.

One interesting part of the article says that England will 'face competition from Russia, the Benelux nations, Italy, Australia, China, Mexico and possibly the United States.' I don't really understand the 'possibility' in front of the US as they have openly said that they will bid (especially since the 2018 rotation would have gone to Concacaf if FIFA actually played by their own rules).

So there you have it, all signs point to England in 2018, although wouldn't it be funny if Russia snuck in and won it at the end?

October 2007 FIFA Rankings - Argentina takes the top spot

The October rankings are out and Argentina has returned to the top spot. They last held the #1 position in March of this year. Other movement has England again falling out of the top 10 after climbing to number 9 last month while Mexico took a bit of a slide to 15th. The US holds steady at 18, which is 11 spots hirer then they were last October. However the big news is Russia who pole-vaulted 10 spots to 16th overall.

Rank Team (Last month) Points
1. Argentina (2), 1,533
2. Brazil (3), 1,459
3. Italy (1), 1,387
4. France (6), 1,271
5. Germany (4), 1,245
6. Spain (7), 1,226
7. Netherlands (5), 1,207
8. Portugal (8), 1,203
9. Czech Republic (11), 1,174
10. Croatia (10), 1,155

11. England (9), 1,137
12. Romania (12), 1,086
13. Scotland (14), 1,049
14. Greece (15), 1,034
15. Mexico (13), 978
16. Russia (26), 960
17. Uruguay (19), 900
18. United States (18), 886
19. Nigeria (23), 841
20. Poland (16), 837
Both the Ukraine (22nd) and Sweden (24th) fell out of the top 20.

Over the whole list, Georgia had the biggest upswing by ticking up 33 spots to 71st, followed by New Zealand (+28 spots to 128th) and St. Vincent and the Grenadines (+24 to 73rd).

On the downside, Bolivia went backwards 17 steps to 107th, Belarus shed 24 spots ending up in 94th and the biggest loser of all is Cape Verde Islands who dropped 36 places to land at 112th.

Here is the way CONCACAF shapes up:
15 Mexico (13)
18 USA (18)
51 Canada (54)
55 Honduras (59)
64 Cuba (71)
65 Panama (66)
66 Costa Rica (56)
68 Haiti (83)
73 St. Vincent and the Grenadines (97)
78 Trinidad and Tobago (64)

92 Guyana (103)
93 Barbados (108)
100 Guatemala (88)
103 Jamaica (96)
134 Bermuda (135)
141 El Salvador (137)
144 Suriname (143)
145 Antigua and Barbuda (131)
148 Dominican Republic (139)
156 St. Kitts and Nevis (146)

161 Nicaragua (158)
163 St. Lucia (163)
165 Grenada (162)
170 Bahamas (168)
180 British Virgin Islands (179)
181 Turks and Caicos Islands (181)
183 Netherlands Antilles (182)
187 Dominica (186)
188 Cayman Islands (188)
195 Puerto Rico (195)

197 Anguilla (197)
200 Belize (200)
200 Aruba (200)
200 US Virgin Islands (200)
200 Montserrat (200)