KATHMANDU: Nepal jumped 24 spots up to 152nd position in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking published on Thursday.

Earlier, Nepal were at the 176th position. Nepal’s current ranking is the best in the FIFA list in 13 years. Nepal’s best place in the world sports governing body’s ranking was in 1993 when they were at the 124th position.

Nepal improved the ranking after the sixth SAFF Championship held recently in Bangladesh where they failed to advance despite one win and a draw. Nepal held Maldives to a 1-1 draw, before losing to India 1-0. Nepal defeated Afghanistan 3-0 in the last league match.

Nepal earned 59 points to accumulate a total of 112 points that put Nepal in the 152nd position along with St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Among the South Asian nations, Nepal are at the fifth position behind India (134), Maldives (137), Bangladesh (149) and Sri Lanka (151). Pakistan (156), Afghanistan (193) and Bhutan (196) are behind Nepal. In AFC ranking, Nepal are at the 30th position out of the 46 nations.

According to the FIFA website, Nepal were on top of the best three movers with 24 positions and 59 points, ahead of Jordan (17 positions and 70 points) and Bangladesh (16 positions and 39 points). The new ranking will be released on February 3.

Spain take the title of ‘Team of the Year’, hanging on to top spot with 1627 points, ahead of Brazil (1568) and the Netherlands (1528).