FIFA Rankings: Pakistan’s football team ranked 194th out of 211
Pakistan has dropped to an all-time low of 194 in the FIFA rankings, becoming Asia’s worst-ranked side as a result of its two losses to Cambodia during the last week in the first round of the combined qualifying for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the 2023 AFC Asian Cup.
Pakistan dropped five spots in the world football body’s standings as a result of Cambodia’s 4-1 aggregate victory over them over two legs. Pakistan was defeated 2-1 in the return match played in Doha after losing the first leg 2-0 in Phnom Penh.
The match was played in Doha because the Pakistan team taking part in the qualifiers — mostly featuring diaspora players — was sent by Faisal Saleh Hayat, who is recognized as Pakistan’s football chief by FIFA but not locally where the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) is headed by Syed Ashfaq Hussain Shah who came into power after an election ordered by the Supreme Court in December last year.
Previously, Pakistan’s worst position in the rankings was 203, which it fell to last year due to a crisis off the pitch. Pakistan played their first match in almost three years when they took part in the SAFF Championship last year with the officials of the Hayat-led federation turning to Pakistani diaspora players in a bid to improve their FIFA ranking.
The losses to Cambodia show that their moves haven’t had the desired effect and Pakistan is expected to fall further down the rankings with the first-round exit in the qualifiers meaning they will be without competitive matches over the next four years.
The victory for Cambodia meant they jumped up four spots to 169th.
The biggest movers in the rankings among Asia’s 12 worst-ranked teams that took part in the first round of qualifiers were Malaysia who soared nine rungs to the 159th spot after drubbing Timor-Leste 12-2 on aggregate. Bangladesh who overcame Laos moved up five places to 183rd.
