On June 18, Beijing time, the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) unveiled the latest ranking of men's soccer teams in Asia. This ranking will be an important reference for the third stage of the Asian zone, i.e. the draw for the 12-team tournament. Thanks to the successive victories over their opponents in the Top 40 matches, our men's soccer team gained 29.72 points and jumped five places to 72nd in the overall ranking; while the ranking of the AFC member associations remained at the ninth place. As a result, our team will be drawn in the fourth bracket, and it seems that it will not be grouped with Iraq, which is in the same bracket.
Initially, an AFC document circulated on the internet stating that the draw for the Top 12 group would be based on the May 2021 world rankings and that the draw was scheduled for June 24th. However, AFC quickly made an official confirmation and update to this news. FIFA purposely released the world rankings of Asian teams on June 18 (unscheduled) and announced that the draw will be held on July 1 at the AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Under the leadership of Li Tie, our men's soccer team has finished with a clean sheet in all four matches since the restart of the Top 40, including a 7-0 win over Guam, a 2-0 defeat to the Philippines, a 5-0 sweep of the Maldives and a 3-1 revenge against Syria. This has not only enabled our team to successfully qualify for the third stage of the Asian zone of the World Qualifying Tournament and the Round of 12, but has also resulted in a positive points and ranking boost in the FIFA Men's National Team Rankings.
China's men's soccer team has increased its points by 29.72 points, with the latest points standing at 1,352.68. The overall ranking has risen five places to 72nd, which is the highest ranking for our team since November 2019, but despite this, it is still not in the top 70 In the AFC Member Association Rankings, our team's ranking remains unchanged at ninth.
With 8 wins, 46 goals scored and only 2 goals conceded to advance to the top 12 of the Japanese team, points increased by 20.11 points to 1529.45 points ranked first in Asia, the total ranking rose 5 places after the 23rd. Iran ranked second in Asia with 1522.04 points, 7.41 points behind Japan, with 22.52 points more than the last release, and 25th after rising six places in the overall ranking.
Australia, who also reached the last 12 with eight wins, overtook South Korea to return to the top three in Asia. The Kangaroos gained 19.72 points to move up four places to 37th overall, while South Korea remained unchanged at 39th.2022 World Cup hosts Qatar, who are fifth in Asia, will not be participating in the Round of 12 but will instead take part in the second phase of the tournament in order to qualify for the final round of the 2023 Asian Cup.
Other Asian teams ahead of our team are Saudi Arabia, UAE and Iraq. Our team is currently only 1.83 points behind Iraq and 48.48 points ahead of Oman, who are 10th in Asia. It is worth noting that as Syria lost their final match of the Top 40 against our team, they were overtaken by Oman and dropped out of the Asian top ten.
According to the latest rankings, the top 12 teams will be divided into two groups of six teams each. There is no rule of circumvention except that teams in the same bracket are in different groups. The dates of the tournament are scheduled from September 2, 2021 to March 29, 2022. The top two teams from both groups will directly qualify for the final round of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, while the third-placed team from both groups will play the fourth stage of the tournament for the fifth place, which will play an intercontinental play-off against a team from another continent to decide the final spot in the final round. (Writer/Zuo Aoyou)
