FIFA Rankings: Indian football team drops two places to 103 ahead of World Cup Qualifiers
The Indian football team's poor show at the recently concluded Intercontinental Cup in Ahmedabad has taken a toll on their FIFA Rankings. India lost five FIFA points and dropped two places in the rankings ladder after succumbing to Tajikistan and DPR Korea before managing to hold a valiant Syria side for a draw.
The eventual winners of the Intercontinental Cup, DPR Korea, climbed four positions to sit on the 118th position. The runners-up Tajikistan, on the other hand, leaped one place to occupy the 119th spot. Syria, meanwhile, endured a similar fate as that of India as they went two places below to 87.
Before the inception of the Intercontinental Cup, India's head coach Igor Stimac said that his primary objective was to give opportunities to every player in the tournament and the results might suffer. While India has scored in every single match since they got a new coach, they have loads of work to do in the defense.
The African nations benefitted the most from the new FIFA update with the African Cup of Nations winner, Algeria, climbing 28 spots. They are ranked 40th in the world whereas Senegal ascended two places to be ranked 20th. The other huge climbers were Haiti (from 101 to 83), Nigeria (from 45 to 33), Madagascar (from 108 to 96), and Egypt (from 58 to 49).
India's opponents in the second round of the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, Qatar and Oman, too descended down the rankings ladder. While the AFC Asian Cup champions plummeted seven points to go down from 69 to 62 in the FIFA rankings, Oman lost only one position and now sit tied with Syria on the 87th spot.
Afghanistan, on the other hand, stays comfortably on their 149th spot whereas Bangladesh moved one place up and now are ranked 182nd in the world. India will begin their FIFA World Cup Qualifiers campaign from 5th September against Oman with Guwahati reportedly set to host the match.
India can make their way back into the top 100 by getting positive results in the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers as these matches carry more weightage while calculating ranking points.