TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – The FIFA ranking list for the world’s national football teams was updated this week. Brazil is still firmly established in the world’s number one position on the list, while Indonesia is up three positions.
Brazil are still cementing their position at the top of the FIFA rankings ahead of the Qatar 2022 World Cup which will take place in mid-November. This can not be separated from the positive results that the country recorded in a series of the last two friendly matches in France last September.
Brazil recorded a 3-0 win over Ghana on September 23 and crushed Tunisia 5-1 four days later to earn an additional 3.74 points in the FIFA rankings. They now collect a total of 1841.3 points and widen their advantage over Belgium who is in second place with 1816.71 points. It certainly can be an additional motivation for the Selecao in their pursuit of a sixth World Cup trophy.
In the September international match window, Belgium suffered a 5.21 point deduction due to suffering one defeat from two matches played in the UEFA Nations League Division A Group 4, namely by a 0-1 score when they traveled to the Netherlands on 26 September.
Meanwhile in third place is Argentina who now has a total of 1773.88 points after adding 3.23 points thanks to two identical 3-0 wins over Honduras and Jamaica in the September international match window.
The trend of point deductions is not only experienced by Belgium, because in the top five FIFA rankings, France and England feel the same way.
France dropped 5.07 points and now have 1759.78 points in fourth place after suffering one loss from two games in September. While England found their points reduced by 8.99 to 1728.47 in fifth place, having lost 0-1 in Italy and could only draw 3-3 against Germany.
FIFA noted there was no change in the composition of the top 10 rankings ahead of the 2022 World Cup after at least 172 official international matches were played during the September window. However, Italy jumped up to sixth place with a total of 1726.14 points after obtaining an additional 12.28 points, swapping places with Spain which now has 1715.22 points.
Read also: 3 Persib players called to practice in Europe with the U-20 national team
Asia Region FIFA Ranking
Especially for the region under the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), Iran shifted Japan to become the Asian country with the highest FIFA ranking position, which is at number 20. Indonesia also climbed three strips to 152nd after posting two straight wins over Guam in the September international window.
Among the overall FIFA rankings, Azerbaijan received the most additional points at 19.55 points and together with Scotland became the country that experienced the most increase in the rankings, namely five places, in 123rd and 40th respectively.
Meanwhile, North Macedonia became the country with the most points deductions at 16.69 and Norway, which fell six places to 42nd, became the country with the worst downgrades.
FIFA actually gave the international match window again starting on November 13, or seven days before the opening of the 2022 World Cup as a warm-up event. However, the points from the match will be calculated after the 2022 World Cup is completed and released on December 22.
Update Ranking Indonesia
The position of the Indonesian national team in the FIFA rankings has finally officially increased. Now Indonesia’s position is in 152nd place with a collection of 1033.9 points. The number of points has increased by 14.71 after successfully overthrowing Curacao twice, which at that time was in 84th place in the FIFA rankings.
For the first match, the Indonesian national team won 3-2 at the Gelora Bandung Lautan Api (GBLA) Stadium, Bandung City, 24 September 2022. The second match, which was held at Pakansari Stadium, Bogor Regency, 27 September 2022), was also successfully won by the Reds squad. White with a score of 2-1.
The number of points achieved by the Indonesian national team is indeed the highest when compared to other Southeast Asian countries. Vietnam, for example, only rose one strip to rank 96 after collecting an additional 7.81 points in the last FIFA Matchday event.
Then, the position of the Thai national team did not change. They are stagnant at level 111 FIFA rankings despite pocketing an additional 4.23 points. The Malaysian national team also experienced an increase in position. They are now sitting at 146 FIFA ranking after gaining 4.37 points.
Next up: The top 10 FIFA rankings and the ranking of ASEAN countries
