Lahore, 25 November : Pakistan has leapt up 15 places to 166th in the latest FIFA World Ranking rankings after their famous 0-0 draw with Asian title holder Iraq at Syrian capital Damascus last month.
The heroics of Akhtar Mohiouddin’s men at Abbasiyyin Stadium mean they overtake their arch rivals in South Asia – Sri Lanka and Nepal. The beginning of the year saw Pakistan 171th, behind South Asian Nations – Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and Nepal. They went further down to 181 but returned back to respectable berths. Pakistan is now only behind India and Maldives in the region, and outpaced Bangladesh, Sri Lanka who joined Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan in bottom zone when FIFA published their November Ranking.
The rankings system was revised after the World Cup in July and results from the last four years rather than eight are now being taken into account. ” the first newly-styled FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking was published on 12 July 2006 . FIFA have acknowledged the need for a substantial revision and their experts have come up with a satisfactory solution for a new way of calculating the ranking. They are aware that it is difficult to meet everybody’s expectations, but are confident that the new system will provide an accurate measure of the strength of every member associations,” stated by Pakistan Football Federation (PFF)’s President Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat who congratulated officials and players of National team and hoped that they will go all for win in next year’s AFC Challenge Cup at Chinese Taipei.
Since its introduction in August 1993, the World Ranking has become a regular part of international sports reports and an important indicator for FIFA’s 208 member associations to find out where their respective teams stand in world football and how they are progressing.
“the increasingly high profile of the world ranking also attracted some criticism indicating that its calculation formula was too complicated. Therefore, last year, the FIFA Technical and Development Committee and the FIFA Football Committee decided to revise the ranking in order to simplify the way in which it is calculated, ” adde d by Faisal, under whom Pakistan’s Ranking jumped from 177th in March 2005 to 153 in June 2006.
Argentina is current leader of FIFA ranking while in Asia, Syria (109th, up 17), Korea DPR (117th, up 12), and fast-charging Pakistan (166th, up 15) catch the eye. The FIFA Ranking currently assesses 207 nations, as Sao Tome and Principe are no longer classified due to a lack of footballing activity. The next Ranking will be published on 17 December 2007.
LATEST RANKING OF ASIAN FOOTBALL TEAMS
1 Japan
2 Iran
3 Korea Republic
4 Australia
5 Saudi Arabia
6 Uzbekistan
7 Iraq
8 Oman
9 China PR
10 Qatar
11 United Arab Emirates
12 Bahrain
13 Syria
14 Thailand
15 Korea DPR
16 Kuwait
17 Jordan
18 Turkmenistan
19 Hong Kong
20 Singapore
21 Indonesia
22 Tajikistan
23 Kyrgyzstan
24 Lebanon
25 Vietnam
26 Yemen
27 India
28 Maldives
29 Myanmar
30 Malaysia
31 Chinese Taipei
32 Pakistan
33 Palestine
34 Sri Lanka
35 Bangladesh
36 Laos
37 Mongolia
38 Philippines
39 Cambodia
40 Nepal
41 Brunei Darussalam
42 Afghanistan
43 Macau
44 Bhutan
45 Guam
46 Timor-Leste