Jordan up to 110th in FIFA rankings

By Aline Bannayan - Apr 08,2017 - Last updated at Apr 08,2017

AMMAN — Jordan went up five spots to 110 in the latest FIFA rankings issued on the weekend.

The squad is still out of the Asian top 10, trailing Iran (28), South Korea (43), Japan (44), Australia (50), Saudi Arabia (52), Uzbekistan (60), UAE (74), Syria (80), China (81), Qatar (89) and India (101).

Brazil, which booked a slot to the 2018 World Cup, took over World rankings at No.1, followed by Argentina, Germany, Chile, Columbia, France, Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland and Spain. African semi-finalist Egypt is the top ranked Arab team at 10th, followed by Tunisia 42nd, Morocco 53rd and Algeria 54th.

During the past month, Jordan beat Hong Kong 4-0 in a friendly game before opening the 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers with a 7-0 win over lowly Cambodia.

Jordan is slated to play Hong Kong again on June 6 before its second Asian Cup qualifier on June 12 against Vietnam, in the group which also includes Afghanistan.

Asian teams in the qualifiers are playing in six groups with group winners and four best runners-up (total 12 teams) advancing to the 2019 AFC Asian Cup finals as well as the final round of qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Teams which already having qualified include Australia, China, Iraq, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Thailand, Uzbekistan and host the UAE.

Jordan was eliminated from the 2018 World Cup qualifiers and now aims to advance to the Asian finals.

Since first taking part in Asian Cup qualifiers in 1972, Jordan reached the championship three times: the pinnacle was at the 13th Asian Cup, when they lost to Japan in the quarterfinals and jumped to the best ever FIFA rank of 37th in August 2004. They also reached the Asian Cup in 2011 and 2015.

Jordan had the most memorable World Cup qualifying journey in 2013 when it lost a possible chance to play at the World Cup for the first time and advanced to play then world’s 6th ranked Uruguay in an intercontinental qualifying tie for a place in the 2014 World Cup.

It 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 in 1985. Round 3 had been the furthest Jordan reached in the past 7 times in the qualifiers since 1986.

Jordan’s best FIFA ranking was 37th in 2004 while the lowest ranking was 152nd in 1996.