Jordan drops to 110th in FIFA Rankings

AMMAN — Jordan dropped two spots to 110th in the latest FIFA Rankings issued on Thursday.

The squad is still out of the Asian top 10 trailing Iran (25), Japan (40), Australia (50), South Korea (51), Saudi Arabia (53), China (62), Uzbekistan (69), the UAE (72), Syria (75), Qatar (85), Iraq (88), Palestine (91) and India (107). Jordan’s best FIFA ranking was 37th in 2004, while its lowest ranking was 152nd in 1996.

Germany leads the top 10 World Rankings, followed by Brazil, Portugal, Argentina, Belgium, Poland, Switzerland, France, Chile and Columbia.

Egypt is the top-ranked Arab team at 30th, followed by Tunisia 31st, Morocco 56th and Algeria 62nd.

Jordan resumed 2019 Asian Cup qualifiers this month and beat Afghanistan 4-1 to maintain Group C lead after earlier holding Vietnam 0-0 and scoring a 7-0 win over lowly Cambodia.

Vietnam is second in the group after they held Afghanistan 1-1 and beat Cambodia 2-1. Cambodia beat Afghanistan 1-0.

Ahead of restarting their Asian Cup qualifying journey Jordan held Bahrain 0-0 in a friendly. They will next play Oman in another friendly on October 5 before playing Afghanistan in the return leg of the qualifiers on October 10.

Qualifying to the 2019 Asian Cup should not be a difficult task for Jordan given the limited capabilities of their qualifying group. 

After elimination from the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, advancing to the Asian finals is a priority. The Kingdom has steadily slid down FIFA rankings and the team has had an inconsistent two years compared to 2013 when Jordan was on the verge of qualifying to the 2014 World Cup for the first time.

The national team is set play two friendless against Kenya on September 17 and 19 before playing Oman on October 4 ahead of resuming return leg away qualifiers against Afghanistan on October 10 and Cambodia on October 14.

Since first taking part in Asian Cup qualifiers in 1972, Jordan reached the Asian Championship three times. The pinnacle was at the 13th Asian Cup, when they lost to Japan in the quarter-finals. They also reached the Asian Cup in 2011 and 2015.

During the 2013 World Cup qualifying journey, Jordan advanced to play then World’s 6th ranked Uruguay in an intercontinental qualifying tie for a place in the 2014 World Cup. They, however, lost the home game 5-0 and held the former World Cup champs 0-0 in the away match. Jordan had never reached that far in World Cup qualifying since taking part in the qualifiers. Round 3 had been the furthest Jordan reached in the past seven times in the qualifiers since 1986.