Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kuala Lumpur: Iran maintained their position as the number one team in Asia after the latest FIFA world rankings were released for the month of May.
With no A-international matches being played last month, it has largely been a case of 'as-you-were' with Iran once again being named the 42nd-ranked side in the world, eight spots above the next-best AFC member in Australia.
In one of the few movements last month, Korea Republic climbed two spots up and are now 54th in the world, while Japan (57th) and Saudi Arabia (60th) round off the top five in the continent.
Kuwait’s forfeiture of March’s 2018 FIFA World Cup/2019 AFC Asian Cup joint-qualifiers against the South Koreans and Laos were factored into the calculation for May’s rankings, meaning they have dropped 14 places to 140th.
Consequently, the Laotians moved up by six spots to be May’s biggest movers, while the Philippines will also have reason to celebrate as they edged one place up into 115th to better their previous highest-ever ranking in the world.
The likes of Oman (98th), Iraq (104th) and Bahrain (130th) all enjoyed improvement as well, while Hong Kong (143rd), Vietnam (145th) and Lebanon (158th) were among the ten countries to have slipped down the pecking order.