KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 25 — The national football squad climbed two rungs from 171st to 169th in the latest International Federation of Association Football (Fifa) rankings for this month.
According to the latest update published in the international federation’s official website, Harimau Malaya accumulated 974 points to stay in the company of nations like Fiji (167), St. Lucia (168), Cambodia (170) and Moldova (171).
The 4-1 victory against Sri Lanka and the narrow 0-1 defeat to the then world number 91 (now 90) Kyrgyzstan helped Tan Cheng Hoe’s side to move up in the world rankings updated on a monthly basis.
This is the first time Harimau Malaya improved their position since climbing eight rungs from 178 to 170 in April this year.
However, Malaysia are still far behind other South East Asian nations, where Vietnam stand at the 102nd position, followed by the Philippines (116), Thailand (121), Myanmar (141), Indonesia (160) and Singapore (165).
Iran continued to dominate the Asian region after they moved up three rungs to 30th place, followed by Australia (42), Japan (50) and South Korea (53), while Sri Lanka is the worst Asian country when they were ranked 201 among 211 countries in the rankings.
Belgium continued their rein at the top of the world listing with 1,733 points while 2018 World Cup champions, France, who shared the top spot with Belgium last month, fell to second place with one point less. — Bernama
