Nepal jump two spots to 173rd

KATHMANDU:Nepal jumped two places to 173rd position in the latest FIFA World Rankings released today.

The new world rankings issued by the world football’s governing body showed Nepal in the 173rd position with 60 points. Nepal were ranked 175th in the previous world rankings issued in August.

Nepal are ahead of just two other South Asian nations — Afghanistan and Bhutan. Afghanistan have 32 points and they are at the 189th postion while Bhutan are ranked 195th with 17 points.

India is the only regional country to make a giant leap jumping 11 places

to get 138th rank with

160 points. Among the other South Asian nations, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh

and Pakistan all are ahead of Nepal.

Sri Lanka are at the 158th position with 103 points while Bangladesh are at 165th position with 82 points. Pakistan have 80 points and they are at the 167th place in the rankings. The rankings show Japan at the top among the Asian countries. Japan are at the 40th position with 735 points. The semi-finalists of the 2002 World Cup, South Korea are ranked 48th collecting 671 points.

Brazil stayed atop the FIFA world rankings while Argentina jumped two spots to sixth and Russia fell out of the top 10.

Portugal were the big winners, jumping seven spots to find their place in the top 10, while the Russians now sit at the 12th position behind the United States.

IFA World Rankings

Rank Country Points

1 Brazil 1632

2 Spain 1629

3 Netherlands 1340

4 Italy 1215

5 Germany 1161

6 Argentina 1103

7 England 1101

8 Croatia 1087

9 France 1049

10 Portugal 1042