Nepal best in South Asia in FIFA rankings
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KATHMANDU, AUG 25 -
Nepal’s position in FIFA’s latest rankings published on Wednesday remained unchanged at 136th. It was feared that the 9-0 drubbing against Jordan in Amman in the World Cup qualifiers would affect the country’s position badly, but a 1-1 draw in the return leg in Kathmandu gave the country nine points to safeguard their spot from football mad nations like Hong Kong and Malaysia.
The 136th position in the global ranking meant Nepal’s zonal ranking remained at 22nd and first among South Asian countries. Bangladesh is one place below Nepal in the zonal ranking but are three places down at 139th in the global rankings.
South Asian powerhouse India fell five places below to 158th (29th in Asian ranking), while the Maldives are at 162nd. Pakistan climbed one place up to 170th followed by Sri Lanka at 174th.
Afghanistan and Bhutan lie way below at 181 and 201 respectively.
Meanwhile, the Netherlands took top spot at the expense of world and European champions Spain.
Spain had held the position for over a year but a 2-1 friendly loss to Italy ensured the Dutch, World Cup runners-up, become the seventh team to occupy the top spot since rankings were created after Argentina, Brazil, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Copa America winners Uruguay, World Cup semi-finalists, become the top South American team in fifth as Brazil, who were beaten 3-2 by Germany in a friendly this month, dropping two places to sixth.
Germany stay third and England move up to fourth, while the make-up of the top 10 remains the same, with Italy, Portugal, Argentina and Croatia the other sides.
Posted on: 2011-08-25 08:52
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