Malta still 176th in FIFA Ranking

austria-malta160531pzcMalta retained the 176th place in the FIFA/Coca Cola World Ranking for August which hardly featured any changes due to a quiet month of international football.

Among the other European countries, Malta is still 50th. Lying just ahead of Malta are the Faroe Islands (135, up 1), Azerbaijan (136, up 1), FYR Macedonia (138, up 1), Luxembourg (145, up 1) and Moldova (165, up 1). Behind Malta are Liechtenstein (182), Kosovo (190), San Marino (200) and Andorra (203).

Malta will be in action later this month in a friendly match against Estonia at the Pärnu Rannastaadion in Pärnu on August 31. Four days later, Malta hosts Scotland in the first match from the European Qualifiers leading to the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Photo: Copyright © Paul Zammit Cutajar

Meanwhile Argentina remain top, followed closely by Belgium, Colombia, Germany and Chile.

Just two international matches, both friendlies, have been played since the July Ranking, meaning that the changes that have taken place are generally minor. The devaluation of older games has been a factor in many of those, and it has benefited the likes of Costa Rica (21, up 6), Japan (49, up 8), Korea DPR (99, up 18) and Mauritania (104, up 15). Kazakhstan, meanwhile, climbed just one spot but this was nonetheless sufficient to take them into their best-ever position (96th).