- Further impetus to football resurgence
Following the latest FIFA Men’s World Rankings updates released on 10 July, Sri Lanka has improved its position by four places jumping from 200th to 196.
The noteworthy feature is Sri Lanka managing to make substantial gains in the FIFA Men’s World Rankings for the first time in nine years with their previous highest position being placed 195 in 2016.
Since then, the country’s national football team endured a lean path stumbling from one loss to another and the nadir of their plunge was being ranked 207th by June 2023.
During the FIFA Men’s World Rankings of 2018, the island nation was placed 200th and since then they struggled to improve their spot making up the numbers in regional competitions and FIFA Friendlies alike.
Lankans who were placed 198 in 2017 had plummeted to 205 by June of last year which further underscored the struggles they had endured during the period.
However, following the latest updates released by FIFA for Men’s World Rankings last week, Sujan Perera’s team has climbed the pecking order while India continue to be the leading South Asian nation being ranked 133.
From 2024 to 2025, Sri Lanka have played 10 internationals winning four, drawing three while losing the remaining three to further underscore the resurgence of the game under the helm of Football Federation of Sri Lanka President Jaswer Umar.
In the South Asian region, the Maldives (177), Nepal (176), Bangladesh (184), Bhutan (186) and Pakistan (201) have been ranked in that manner.
However, Japan continues to be the top nation in Asia being placed 17 with world champions Argentina heading the FIFA Men’s World Rankings followed by Spain, France, England and Brazil respectively.
Meanwhile, Costa Rica have been the biggest shakers of the FIFA Men’s World Rankings released last week with the Central American nation jumping from its previous position of 54th to 40 which is a rise of 14 places while the next biggest beneficiary has been Honduras who have moved to 66th from a previous spot of 75.
By the same token, the biggest decline had been experienced by five nations namely Jamaica, Haiti, Congo, Grenada and Maldives respectively, who have all slumped seven places from their original positions.