Jordan remains 103rd in FIFA rankings

AMMAN — Jordan remained at 103rd in the latest FIFA World Rankings issued on the weekend.

Jordan is now 12th among Asian teams, trailing Iran (40), Japan (50), South Korea (57), Australia (64), the UAE (68), Uzbekistan (72), China (82), Iraq (86), Saudi Arabia (95), Oman (97) and Qatar (99). 

The top 10 is still led by Germany, followed by Argentina, Belgium, Columbia, Brazil, Netherlands, Portugal, Uruguay, Switzerland and Spain. 

The United States has dropped one spot to 28th. Costa Rica remain CONCACAF’s highest-ranked side with an unchanged position of 15th. Panama (53), Trinidad & Tobago (65), Jamaica (74) and Honduras (76) sit well back of CONCACAF’s dominant trio, while Canada came in 115th this month.

Bhutan is no more the lowest ranked footballing nation. After the memorable double victory in the two-legged encounter with Sri Lanka, Bhutan jumped 46 places from the bottom of the FIFA ranking to reach 163rd in the table.

This is the highest ranking that the country has ever reached since the ranking was introduced in 1993 and also the biggest leap in this edition of the FIFA World Rankings this year. Bhutan is ranked above neighbour Bangladesh (167), Malaysia (164), war torn Yemen (170) and Hong Kong (167).

The Jordan Football Association is looking to finalise friendlies for the team against Lebanon and Kuwait, and possibly Trinidad and Tobago, in the next three weeks. 

Jordan dropped out of the top 100 after two friendlies in which they lost 2-1 to Saudi Arabia and 1-0 to Syria. In their last official competition, Jordan failed to reach the quarters of the 16th Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup 2015. It was their third time at the finals since first taking part in Asian Cup qualifiers in 1972.

Now the team is looking forward to Group B qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup in Russia doubling as part of the qualification for 2019 Asian Cup as well. 

The Kingdom will join Australia, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Bangladesh as they seek to advance in both competitions. 

Jordan’s best ever FIFA rank was 37th in 2004 after reaching the Asian Cup quarter-final when they lost to Japan. In 2011, Jordan again reached the quarter-finals.

Jordan also had the most memorable World Cup qualifiers in 2013 when they then played the world’s 6th ranked Uruguay in their intercontinental qualifying tie for a place in the 2014 World Cup. Jordan lost the home game 5-0 and held the former World Cup champs 0-0 in the away match, losing the chance to move to the World Cup for the first time. 

The Kingdom had never reached this far in World Cup qualifying since taking part in the World Cup qualifiers in 1985. Round 3 had been the furthest Jordan reached in the past seven times in the qualifiers since 1986.