Spain stay top as afghanistan rise in FIFA ranking

BERNE: Spain stayed top of the FIFA rankings on Wednesday as the 10 top places remained unchanged, while Afghanistan reached their highest-ever position.

Afghanistan’s 1-0 win over Sri Lanka in one of only a handful of internationals played in the last month was enough to lift them to 164th.

Afghanistan have won three matches this year — the other two were against tiny Bhutan — to double their number of victories since they started playing international football in 1948.

At the top, Netherlands are second behind world and European champions Spain with Brazil third, Germany fourth and Argentina fifth.

Ghana (15th) are Africa’s highest-ranked team while Japan (14th) are the top Asian side.
Six teams share 202nd and last place — Andorra, San Marino, Anguilla, Montserrat, American Samoa and Papua New Guinea.

Rankings (last month’s positions in brackets)
1. (1) Spain
2. (2) Netherlands
3. (3) Brazil
4. (4) Germany
5. (5) Argentina
6. (6) England
7. (7) Uruguay
8. (8) Portugal
9. (9) Italy
10.(10) Croatia

news covered by dawn sports