Malta still 182nd in FIFA Ranking

Malta is still ranked 182nd in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking as published on Thursday.

The boys in red are ranked 51st in Europe, lying just behind FYR Macedonia (136, down 3), Luxembourg (145, up 2), Moldova (161, down 2) and Kosovo (173, down 1). Behind Malta are Liechtenstein (186, down 3) and Andorra (186, up 1), San Marino (204) and Gibraltar (206).

Malta will be in action on Tuesday in a friendly match against Ukraine and then on Saturday in a World Cup qualifier against Slovenia.

Meanwhile ahead of a busy month in senior international football, with FIFA World Cup™ qualifying and the FIFA Confederations Cup set to take centre stage in June, there has been a small amount of notable movement in the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. New Zealand, who will face hosts Russia in the opener of the Confederations Cup in Saint Petersburg on 17 June, are the biggest movers by rank (95th, plus 17 places), while there were marginal gains for other Russia 2017 participants Australia (48th, plus two places) and Cameroon (32nd, up one place).

With just ten international friendlies taking place since the May edition, there is little surprise that most of the top ten remain unchanged, with Brazil, Argentina and another Confederations Cup contender Germany retaining their place as the top three. However, Poland (tenth, up one place) have managed to gatecrash the top ten for the first time in the Ranking’s history, with the side currently sitting top of Group E in the UEFA section of World Cup qualifying joining Spain on 1198 ranking points, meaning they share tenth spot.

Another pair of sides who share a space in the Ranking are United Kingdom neighbours Wales (13th) and England (13th, up one place) thanks to the Three Lions’ slight rise.