Malaysia have dropped four spots to 174th in the latest FIFA World Rankings released on Thursday, marking a return to their worst position set in April and May 2016.
They are sharing the spot with Kosovo, who became a FIFA member not more than two years ago, and Saint Lucia, a British Commonwealth country located in the Caribbean.
The drop should not come as a big surprise, as the Harimau Malaya have only registered two draws and six losses in 2017 so far, with their last win coming against Cambodia in the 2016 AFF Suzuki Cup last November.
Interestingly, they are now below the Angkor Warriors, who have retained their 170th spot from last month and are sharing it with Singapore, who have moved up from 173rd.
As for their other Southeast Asian neighbours, the Philippines have remained the top dogs in the region despite dropping from 116th to 118th.
Indonesia are among the best movers in the world this month, climbing up 11 spots to 154th, while Thailand (132nd) and Myanmar (150th) have also enjoyed improvement in their rankings.
Having played no international matches this year so far, Brunei Darussalam and Timor-Leste have slid down the rankings to 190th and 196th respectively.
Not far ahead of the two countries is Laos, who have claimed the unwanted honour of the biggest fallers of the month, dropping 22 spots to 184th.
Two of the five AFC representatives at next year’s World Cup – Iran (32nd), Australia (39th), Japan (55th), Korea Republic (59th) and Saudi Arabia (63rd) – are in the top 50, while Korea DPR have jumped up 18 spots to 114th to become the best movers of the month.
The top five in the world have remained unchanged, with Germany, Brazil, Portugal, Argentina, and Belgium hogging the spots.
The next FIFA World Rankings will be released on December 21.
(Picture: Asiana.my/Naim Mahmud)
Seng Foo Lee
Thu Nov 23 2017
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