FIFA's latest rankings unveiled: national soccer team edges down overall, ninth in Asia
On April 7, Beijing time, FIFA unveiled its national team rankings for the period ending April 2021 In our overall national team rankings, we unfortunately slipped two places and are currently in 77th place, while maintaining a steady 1,322.96 points and a ninth place ranking in Asia. Meanwhile, Japan sits firmly at the top of Asia, while Belgium continues to lead the overall standings.
This is the second time that FIFA has released its men's national team rankings for 2021, and since the last release on February 18, international football has played 185 matches in the past 40 days or so, including World Qualifiers and warm-up matches. However, our national team has not been involved in international A-level competitions, but continues to warm up with Chinese Super League teams. Led by Li Tie, the national soccer team has won eight straight matches, defeating Henan Songshan Longmen and Shandong Taishan with scores of 2-0 and 3-0, respectively.
As these warm-up matches were not recognized by FIFA, our men's football team's points remained at 1,322.96, a score that has remained unchanged since the beginning of last year. Nonetheless, our overall ranking has slipped slightly, mainly due to the fact that teams such as Cape Verde Islands and Netherlands Curacao, who were originally located behind the national soccer team, overtook a number of teams, including the national soccer team, which brought the national soccer team down to 77th place in the rankings.
In terms of Asian rankings, the national soccer team remains in ninth place, behind Japan, Iran, South Korea, Australia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates. Despite being ranked 10th in Asia, Syria is ranked above the national soccer team in Group A of the Asian Qualifying Round 40. Syria leads the group with five wins in their past 40 matches, while the national soccer team has two wins, one draw and one loss, and is tied with the Philippines on seven points.
In the overall standings, Belgium continues to lead the way with 1,783.38 points and has been at the top of the table since September 2018. France, Brazil, England, Portugal and Spain also hold steady in positions two through six. Italy moved up three places after adding 17 points, overtaking Argentina in the latest rankings to seventh. Guinea-Bissau moved up 11 places to 108th, making them the fastest-improving team in the rankings, while Mozambique slipped nine places to 115th, the worst drop in the rankings. FIFA's next release of the rankings will be on May 27th.
