The latest FIFA rankings for the world of men’s football has been released, with some notable news. India has risen two places in the rankings, continuing their upward trend after the appointment of Stephen Constantine as manager. In addition, Belgium have retained top spot in the rankings, continuing their dominance of the International FIFA Men’s Rankings.
The rankings for the month of March were released on FIFA.com, with India rising to 160th in the leaderboard. Despite not playing any game in the month of March, FIFA’s system of awarding previous years a particular weightage means that India gained 3 points from 139 to to rise to 142.24 points, with Bermuda and Sao Tome e Principe’s precipitous drops of 6 and 15 places respectively allowing India to profit.
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The Blue Tigers were ranked in 166th place at the beginning of the year, and victory in the 2016 SAFF Championship meant that India rose three places in January. However, despite the rise in ranking, India are still ranked 31st out of the 46 Asian Football Confederation nations, with Guam and Maldives having a rather large 30 and 23 point lead over the Blue Tigers respectively, which might prevent a further rise.
The nominal rise, however, represents a step forward, with Constantine making slow and steady progress after being heavily criticized for India’s dismal results of just a solitary victory in six 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier matches, with the Blue Tigers losing the other five.
Belgium continues to dominate while Venezuela rises
The top ten of the FIFA rankings remain unchanged, as only 14 ‘A’ category games were taken into account for the March edition of the FIFA rankings, with most major teams yet to play in 2016. Belgium, Argentina and Spain remain the top three, with Italy’s move to 14th above Netherlands in 15th being the only change in the top 25.
Venezuela were the highest point gainers in this edition of the FIFA rankings, as the South American’s impressive 1-0 win over Costa Rica allowed them to rise 6 places in the leaderboard, after gaining 57 points.
Conversely, the biggest drop in points came from African giants Cote d’Ivoire, as they lost a staggering 84 points to drop to 36th place, down 8 places. The Ivory Coast’s downturn in form has allowed the tiny West African Island nation of Cape Verde to become the highest ranked CAF nation, occupying 31st place in the FIFA rankings.
