The Indian men’s senior national football team reaped the benefits of their outstanding Asian Cup qualification, moving up two places in the latest FIFA world rankings released on Thursday, from 106th to 104th.
The Indian women’s senior national football team also achieved success, moving up three places from 59th to 56th.
We rise 🆙 together! 🤩#BackTheBlue 💙 #BlueTigers 🐯 #BlueTigresses 🐯 #IndianFootball ⚽️ pic.twitter.com/FD62qySlOk
— Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) June 23, 2022
The Blue Tigers highlighted an outstanding performance in the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers campaign, where they topped Group D with three straight wins over Afghanistan, Cambodia, and Hong Kong.
The Sunil Chhetri-led team made history by achieving back-to-back qualification for the AFC Asian Cup, which will be held in 2023. They are now ranked just below New Zealand (103rd), who was recently eliminated from World Cup qualification by Costa Rica.
However, India’s AFC ranking remains unchanged at 19th, with Iran atop the rankings.
The women’s team, on the other hand, defeated Egypt and Jordan 1-0 in international friendlies earlier this year.
(Inputs from IANS)