India are winning the Hero Tri-Nation tournament. (Source: Indian Football Team/Twitter)
The Indian men’s football team has climbed up four places in the recent FIFA World Rankings and are now ranked 102nd. Previously, there were ranked 106th in the world. This improvement comes after the national team’s recent performances.
FIFA Rankings update March 2023 for several countries which are requested by followers. Sorry for wrong calculation yesterday due to human error. Please find the corrected points below, thanks pic.twitter.com/9YvV4SgdNY
On 28th March, 2023, India lifted the Hero Tri-Nation tournament cup after defeating Myanmar and Kyrgyz Republic. It was Anirudh Thapa who scored the solitary goal against the former, while defender Sandesh Jhingan and skipper Sunil Chhetri scored against the latter.
While this is miles away from India’s best ever FIFA ranking of 94, which was achieved back in 1996, this is improvement under head coach Igor Stimac. It was Englishman Stephen Constantine who helped the national team break into the top 100 in recent years.
Confirmation from the AIFF that the AFC has written to member associations with details of the Asian Cup draw.
The draw will take place in Qatar on May 11th.
The tournament’s move to early 2024 (12-Jan – 10-Feb) still requires FIFA sign off. #AsianCup https://t.co/sNRE8tliYT
This bump in the FIFA ranking might be significant in the context of the upcoming 2024 AFC Asian Cup. The draw for the much-awaited tournament is slated to take place in May, where the pots will be determined based on the next FIFA rankings update, which is reported to be on 6th April.