FIFA Rankings: India drop ten spots to 155

More bad news for Wim Koevermans’s Indian National Football Team

SAFF Championship 2013 runners-up India have dropped ten spots to 155 in the FIFA Rankings according to latest release, which came out on Thursday. India have also moved down four places to 28th in the Asian Rankings.

Despite reaching the final, India only managed to beat two lower-ranked nations in Pakistan and Maldives at SAFF 2013. They were held by another lower-ranked team Bangladesh and beaten by Nepal, who were also placed below India. The 3-0 defeat to Tajikistan in August was also taken into consideration for this month’s rankings.

In the final, Wim Koevermans’s side were beaten by higher ranked Afghanistan, who are now 23 spots above India at 132 but that game hasn’t been included for this month’s calculation. The newly crowned South Asian champions moved up by seven spots and Nepal too made the same progress as they are now up to 163rd place.

India are now the third highest ranked team in South Asia as Maldives moved up by one spot to 152.

Pakistan dropped three places to 170 while Bangladesh dropped eight spots to 166. Sri Lanka moved up two spots to 168 while Bhutan remain in 207th place.

Although all matches of SAFF 2013, barring the final, were counted for September’s rankings, it’s worth nothing that position in the FIFA Rankings table also comes down to results over the last four years.

The Indian senior team doesn’t have any major international competition until 2015 so it remains to be seen how many friendlies they play until then.