Robert Earnshaw slates 'fake' ranking

Wales striker Robert Earnshaw has hit out at the Fifa world rankings and insists Gary Speed's men will be paying no attention to them as they look ahead to a World Cup qualifying group which includes Scotland.

Wales lie joint 112th in the world governing body's standings, level with a Faroe Islands side who were seeded above them at the recent draw for the 2014 qualifiers.

Cardiff striker Earnshaw believes their current position is false given the calibre of players such as Craig Bellamy, Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey. Speaking ahead of Wales' friendly with Australia tomorrow, he said: "I think the rankings are fake, they don't tell the truth.

"I know they have to have them and put everybody into groups when they need to be drawn but they don't tell the truth about what is really going on. It's a piece of paper that says we are in this position but if you look at the squad we are nowhere near that."

Earnshaw, who has 54 caps and 16 goals to his name, is buoyed by Wales' Group A draw for those World Cup qualifiers, where they will meet Croatia, Serbia, Belgium, Scotland and Macedonia, who will be coached by former Wales manager Toshack.

Earnshaw said: "Teams like Germany usually qualify, they have that history of always qualifying, but we are not facing that type of side. We are playing teams that sometimes don't qualify for major tournaments. These are teams we would fancy our chances to beat more than Germany or Holland.

"It will be tough but it's a group we can get some confidence from as they are teams on our day we can beat."