New Delhi, May 27: The Indian men’s football team retained its 105th position on the FIFA world rankings released on Thursday.
In the women’s category, the Indian team slipped four spots to be 57th in the rankings released last month.
It has been a quiet period for international football, and this is mirrored in the latest FIFA world men’s rankings.
“With only one match played since the last edition was published – a Ukraine-Bahrain friendly that ended all square (1-1) – the top 50 remains unchanged, with Belgium leading the way from France and Brazil,” FIFA said in a statement.
France is placed second, followed by Brazil, England, and Portugal in the men’s category.
“Bahrain’s one-place gain (98, +1) is the only movement among the 210 national teams that make up the Ranking. Ukraine remain 24th but, having dropped points, have enabled nearest pursuers Serbia to close the gap on them.”
However, things are expected to change in the coming weeks, when a host of international competitions take place around the globe. Among the matches are FIFA World Cup qualifiers in Asia, as well as qualifiers for the FIFA Arab Cup 2021, involving teams from Africa and Asia in mid-June.
In the women’s category, the USA leads the way, followed by Germany, the Netherlands, France, and Sweden.
India’s men will be competing in the remainder of the World Cup qualifying matches against Qatar, Bangladesh and Afghanistan in the month of June. (IANS)