Malta climbed another two places in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking which was published on Thursday and is now ranked 130th.

Among the other European countries, lying just ahead of Malta are Luxembourg (122, up 1), Cyprus (125, up 1) and Kazakhstan (128) while Liechtenstein (156, down 2), Faroe Islands (170), Andorra (198) and San Marino (207) are behind Malta.

There are no scheduled fixtures so far but a friendly match could be played on March 5. The EURO 2016 qualifiers will kick-off in September with the draws being held next month in Nice.

Meanwhile there have been very few changes to the first edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking in 2014, with football having come to a halt in many places over the New Year period.

Only 18 friendlies have been included since December’s edition, five of which took place in 2013, with the remaining 13 in the first half of January 2014.

There was no movement whatsoever in the top 25, with Spain still holding a comfortable lead over Germany and Argentina.

Photo: Copyright © www.stephengatt.com