On October 6, nightfall, Beijing time unveiled the latest release of the World Football Federation's men's national team world rankings. On this list, Brazil reigns supreme, while our men's national team's performance is a bit choppy, slipping from 78th to 79th in the last edition. Nonetheless, we remain firmly in 11th place in the AFC rankings, a position which, if maintained, would undoubtedly mean that we would feature as a second-tier team in the 2023 Asian Cup.
Looking back at the international days of September 18-27, men's national soccer teams from all over the world made appearances and participated in various tournaments. And this ranking adjustment is based on the results of these tournaments. Compared with the previous edition, the ranking of the top ten teams in this edition of the ranking list has remained stable, except for Italy and Spain, which have moved up and down one place respectively.
Within Asia, Iran still occupies the 20th position in the world rankings, while Japan, South Korea, Australia, Qatar and Saudi Arabia follow in that order. These six teams will also represent Asia in the Qatar World Cup. The country's men's soccer team, which has not competed in this cycle, has slipped one spot in the rankings to 79th due to the dynamics of the other teams. However, we still maintain our 11th Asian ranking due to Jordan and Bahrain having more points.
It is reported that the AFC will announce the venue for the Asian Cup on the 17th of this month. If the tournament settles in South Korea, it will likely be scheduled for June or July of the following year. As a rule, the AFC usually conducts the group draw about six months before the tournament opens. Therefore, it is highly likely that the draw will take place at the end of this year, after the World Cup in Qatar. The year-end rankings of the teams representing the member associations of the WFA, on the other hand, will be revealed on December 22nd. At present, it seems that, except for the top six who will participate in the World Cup proper, the representative teams (national teams) of the other AFC member associations are unlikely to play warm-up matches during the World Cup, so their ranking points are not expected to change much. This means that our men's soccer team is expected to maintain its 11th position in Asia in the year-end rankings and participate in the Asian Cup draw in that capacity.
