In the early morning of April 7, FIFA, the international soccer authority, unveiled the April 2021 national team power list. China's men's soccer team slipped slightly from 75th to 77th on the list, but their total points remained solid at 1,322.96, and their ranking in Asia remained unchanged at ninth. Meanwhile, Japan remain at the top of the Asian rankings, while Belgium continue to lead the way in the overall rankings.
This is the second men's national team ranking released by FIFA in 2021, and since the last ranking was released on Feb. 18, 185 matches have been held in the 40-plus days of global soccer. However, the Chinese national team did not participate in any international A-list matches, instead playing warm-up matches against Chinese Super League teams. In those warm-up matches, the Li Tie-coached national football team won 2-0 against Henan Songshan Longmen and 3-0 against Shandong Taishan, making it eight consecutive wins in warm-up matches.
However, because these warm-up matches were not certified as FIFA A-level events, the national soccer team's points remained stuck at 1,322.96. This score has not changed since the beginning of last year. Nonetheless, the National Football Team's overall ranking has dropped slightly, mainly due to the fact that teams such as Cape Verde Islands and Netherlands Curacao, who are ranked behind them, have overtaken the National Football Team and many others. The National Football League slipped two spots to 77th place.
Despite this, the national soccer team remains ranked ninth in Asia, behind Japan, Iran, South Korea, Australia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates. Syria, despite being ranked 10th in Asia, outranked the national soccer team in Group A of the Asian qualifying round of the World Cup. Syria, which has recently suffered from domestic unrest, leads the group with five wins in the 40-team tournament, while the national soccer team has two wins, one draw and one loss, and is tied on seven points with the Philippines, which has played only five matches.
In the overall standings, Belgium has added three points to its tally and continues to lead the way with 1,783.38 points, having held the top spot since September 2018. France, Brazil, England, Portugal and Spain also held on to their respective positions in second through sixth. Italy have gained 17 points to move up three places and are now in seventh place, slightly ahead of Argentina. Guinea-Bissau moved up 11 places to 108th, the fastest improvement in the rankings, while Mozambique slipped nine places to 115th, the most significant drop in the rankings. FIFA will next release the rankings on May 27th.
