India drops to 107 in the latest FIFA rankings, Know the reasons

by Chittu Shetty September 14, 2017

Lack of games against higher ranked teams and too much matches against lower ranked sides has caused the Indian team to lose points subsequently falling down the FIFA rankings.

Last Time India played a team ranked higher than them was back in 2016 when they faced Puerto Rico. Since winning that game India gained huge advantage on FIFA point’s scale having beaten a team ranked 36 places above. Next international event India played was seven months later in March this year, where India went on to win an important away encounter against Cambodia sneaking to a 3-2 win. After a commendable yet hard fought 1-0 win against Myanmar and Kyrgyz Republic in an AFC tournament, India had been on roll in FIFA rankings reaching as high as 96^th Position.

But since then the ranking has been on slight decline. Lack of game time against quality opponents have been one of the reasons. Since reaching their best ranking in two decades, India had faced just three opponents. While the game against lower ranked Macau was an AFC Asian cup qualifier, the hero Tri-Nation series against St Kitts and Mauritius was considered as a friendly which didn’t help either. While the draw against St. Kitts cost us 126 points, which would have actually brought a total around 190 pts. Closer to this year’s average of 216, the win against Mauritius had no use since it gave us just 124 points, way below the average, eventually lending a hand in decline.

What Next

AIFF’s reluctance getting hold of the 12^th best Asian team spot is understandable considering the fact that India will have a chance to host a favourable draw for AFC Asian Cup 2019. Currently we are 13^th best team in Asia, So cancelling out Palestine friendly may not be good Idea, while a loss would definitely hurt us, a draw would have given us somewhere around 94 points but a win would have been a huge bonus giving us 327 FIFA  points. Considering the match was a home game and that India have been on winning streak, this lack of faith on team from the board is dubious.

India are now set to face Macau for the AFC Asian Games 2019 qualifiers winning which will provide India  another 319 points for FIFA ranking consideration. AIFF has been smart enough so far to twist the FIFA Rankings to its benefit (clearly seen from the fact that India went on increasing in Ranks despite not playing for seven months after the Puerto Rico win). With reports coming in that India could still face Palestine on an unofficial base AIFF think tank will right on work now to ensure India manages to reach 12^th best Asian spots as well as hold the spot until April 2019 when the draws for 2019 AFC Asian Cup will be out.

Also Read: Bengaluru FC reach Inter-Zone Finals of AFC Cup 2017