Big Movers of 1999
World champions France qualified for Euro 2000 without much conviction and lost their place at the top of the rankings.
Lowly ranked Libya were the biggest movers with friendly wins over Senegal, Iraq, UAE, Togo (twice), Malawi and Gabon.
Senegal, whose only loss of the year was a 2-1 friendly away to big movers Libya, qualified for the 2000 African Cup of Nations beating Zimbabwe 2-0 along the way.
Trinidad & Tobago were almost unstoppable, losing their last match of the year in a friendly 3-2 away to Honduras after having beaten Jamaica 2-0, South African 2-0 and Colombia 4-3 in friendly matches and winning the Caribbean Cup by defeating Jamaica 1-0, Grenada 7-0, Guadeloupe 3-2, Haiti 6-1 and Cuba in the final.
Cuba had a good run in the Caribbean Cup with wins over Cayman Islands 4-1, Bahamas 7-0, Bermuda 2-1, Haiti 3-1 St Kitts & Nevis 2-0 and Jamaica 2-0, losing eventually 2-1 in extra time to hosts Trinidad & Tobago in the final.
Honduras finished 3rd in the UNCAF Cup despite twice defeating hosts and eventual winners Costa Rica on their way. In friendly matches the Hondurans held Peru to a goalless draw in Lima and thumped Zambia 7-1 in San Pedro Sula before returning to Costa Rica for a 1-1 draw in an end of the year friendly.
Vietnam had a good run in the Southeast Asian games played in Brunei where they finally conceded their only goals of the year losing 2-0 to Thailand. Among their wins were the 9-0 demolition of Laos and a 2-0 success over Myanmar.
Iraq put together a set of wins in Dushanbe, beating hosts Tajikistan 2-1 and going on to defeat Oman 2-0 and Kyrgyzstan 5-1 to qualify for the 2000 Asian Cup.
Switzerland ended the year with a 2-0 away win in Wales and moved up into 10th place despite narrowly missing out on the play-offs for Euro 2000.
Denmark picked up impressive wins in Croatia, Israel and Italy, while Norway and The Czech Republic qualified convincingly for the Euros.
Hungary slipped down the most after suffering a 1-0 home loss to Slovakia and drawing 0-0 in Liechtenstein to leave them with no hope of qualifying for Euro 2000.
Faroe Islands finished bottom of their qualifying group for Euro 2000 after losing their home matches 2-0 to Estonian and 1-0 to Lithuania.
Guatemala found it a tough year of friendly matches with home losses against Bolivia 3-0 and Jamaica 4-2 among their poor results.
Egypt returned from Mexico having been thumped 5-1 by Saudi Arabia in the Confederations Cup. Losing 2-1 at home to Ghana in a friendly later on that year was also a disappointment for the Egyptians.
Kyrgyzstan lost all 3 matches in Tajikistan as they failed to make an impression in the Asian qualifiers, losing 3-2 to their host and 3-0 to Oman before going out 5-1 to Iraq.
Italy struggled to qualify for Euro 2000, drawing home and away against Belarus, losing 3-2 at home to the Danes and only managing a 0-0 draw in Switzerland. The Italians ended the year in an unfamiliar 35th spot after suffering a 3-1 friendly home loss to Belgium.
In the most unexpected results of the year, British Virgin Islands triumphed 5-0 over Puerto Rico in a Caribbean qualifier in Port-Au-Prince, and Liberia celebrated a 2-0 win over Tunisia in an African qualifier. In Euro qualifiers Bosnia & Herzegovina rallied to a 4-1 win away to Estonia, England were defeated 1-0 at home by the Scots and Israel were trounced 5-0 at home by Denmark.
Four more countries joined the rankings with Eritrea the highest of the newcomers after holding Cameroon to a draw at home and losing only 1-0 in the away match, before gaining a 1-0 home win against Mozambique in the African qualifiers. Palestine joined after respectable results in Jordan which included a 1-0 win over UAE and draws against Libya and Syria. Guadeloupe moved in on the back of 1-0 home wins over Dominica and Barbados, while Bahamas moved in close to the bottom of the rankings after heavy defeats in Bermuda 6-0 to their host and 7-0 to Cuba.
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