India drop 15 places to 117th in FIFA rankings, worst in seven years, after Asian Cup debacle

New Delhi, February 15

The Indian football team on Thursday dropped 15 places to 117th in the FIFA rankings, the worst in seven years, after the recent debacle in the AFC Asian Cup, where it lost all its three group matches.

This was India’s worst ranking after it was placed at 129th spot in January 2017 chart. The historical worst ranking, though, was 173 in 2015.

The Indian team was placed at 102nd in the last FIFA rankings, issued on December 21, 2023.

India also lost 35.63 rating points from the previous total. It now lies in between Togo (116th) and Guinea-Bissau (118th). The country is ranked 22nd among the Asian nations.

India, under Igor Stimac, ended their Asian Cup campaign in January pointless and goal-less after losing to Australia (0-2), Uzbekistan (0-3) and Syria (0-1). It finished at the bottom of the four-team Group B.

The main movers were the countries of Asia and Africa as they had their continental championships during this period. There was no change in the top-10 with world champion Argentina still leading the pack.

France, England, Belgium and Brazil follow Argentina in that order.

Asian Cup champions Qatar rose 21 places to 37th, though Japan, which dropped one spot to 18th, still leads the continental rankings.

Surprise Asian Cup runners up Jordan gained 17 places to occupy 70th spot.