Indian football creates history reaches its highest ranking in over two decades

by Chittu Shetty April 6, 2017

Indian Football team jumped 31 places to find itself on 101^th positions in the latest FIFA rankings courtesy of the two away wins over Cambodia and Myanmar

Indian football team’s ascend in football ranking continues with a 31 place jump in the latest rankings. It’s been a long time since the Indian team came so close to breaking the 100 rank barrier. India’s highest FIFA ranking achieved so far has been 94 which was attained in February 1996. In the last one year the team has jumped over 60 places in the FIFA ranking table thanks to 6 consecutive wins.

This historic rise in rankings meant that the Indian team leapfrog the Democratic Peoples Republic (DPR) of Korea, Thailand, Latvia, Jordan and Iraq to name a few. In fact, India is tied on points with Estonia, Lithuania and Nicaragua. Among the Asian countries, India have risen eight places to 11^th from 19^th amongst 46 teams, with Iran, ranked 28th internationally, topping the group. While among SAFF countries, India leads the way with the next best team coming 50 places behind in Maldives at 151st, followed by Bhutan (164), Nepal(170), Sri Lanka (197) and Pakistan (201) coming way behind.

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With this record ranking comes new expectation. India will now play Lebanon in their first International Friendly at home for this year on June 7, 2017 before taking on Kyrgyzstan Republic at home on June 13 in their next AFC Asian Cup qualifier match. With a win over the next two opponents, India stands chance to break into the Top 100 ranking barrier which was last achieved 21 years ago.

While the performances in the last two games hasn’t been the best, India still have managed to scrap out points which is essential and one can only hope that they come out with their best when they face sides like Lebanon and Kyrgyzstan republic in two months time.