Bahrain drop to 99th on FIFA World Ranking

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s senior men’s national football team have dropped two places on the latest edition of the FIFA World Ranking, which was released yesterday by the sport’s governing body.

The Bahrainis are now in 99th position overall in the world with 1,238.89 total points, marginally up from their previous total of 1,238. Despite this, the nationals dropped from their last rank of 97th from the previous global classification, issued in mid-February.

Amongst teams in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Bahrain is 17th. Japan is the highest-ranked squad in the continent at 28th in the world with 1,509.34 points, followed by Iran at 31st with 1,499.52 points.

South Korea is third in Asia at 39th globally with 1,460.25 points, followed by Australia at 41st with 1,457.49 points, Qatar at 58th with 1,397.92 points, and SaudiArabiaat65thon1,364.39 points.

The Bahrainis are ranked fifth amongst all GCC national teams, behind the Qataris, Sau- dis, the UAE (73rd, 1,330.16pts), and Oman (80th, 1,301.51pts), and are ahead only of Kuwait, which is 148th in the world with 1,056.3 points.

Sitting atop the latest FIFA World Ranking are Belgium with 1,783.38 points, while France (1,757.3), Brazil (1,742.65), England (1,686.78), and Portugal (1,666.12) make up the top five.

The FIFA World Ranking is a ranking system for men’s national teams in association football. The teams of FIFA men’s member nations are classified based on their game results, with the most successful teams being ranked highest.