KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 7 — Malaysian football once again fell to its lowest peak in the history of the World Football Federation (FIFA) ranking after being listed in 171st position when the latest ranking was released today.

Malaysia who fell to the 171st spot in October last year, climbed a spot to 170th in Nov before returning to its lowest peak since the introduction of the ranking system in Dec 1992.

The absence of international fixtures could be the reason for the fall since Malaysia last played a 2018 World Cup/2019 Asian Cup Qualifiers match against United the Arab Emirates (UAE) on Nov 17 at the Shah Alam Stadium and lost 1-2.

Malaysia is now in the companionship of countries such as Timur Leste (170th place), Mauritius (172), Puerto Rico (172) and Comoros (174).

The country’s best ever ranking was 75th in 1993.

Fellow South East Asian neighbour Thailand recorded their biggest move in the ranking this month after climbing 12 places to 121st position.

The top 20 places remained unchanged since the last update, with Belgium still at the top followed by Argentina, Spain and Germany for the second, third and fourth places respectively. — Bernama