Malta retained the 156th place in the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking list which was published on Wednesday.

Malta did not play any international matches over the past four weeks and the next commitment is a friendly match against Liechtenstein on February 29.

Among the other European countries, lying just ahead of Malta are Cyprus (126, up 1), Luxembourg (127, up 1), Liechtenstein (130, up 2), Moldova (135, up 1), Kazakhstan (139, down 1). Andorra and San Marino are currently 206th.

Meanwhile as expected, there were very few changes to 2012’s first edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, as precious little football was played around the world. In fact, only 11 matches were taken into account, including six that were actually played in 2011.

At the summit, world champions Spain continue to lead the way ahead of the Netherlands, Germany and Uruguay, who are still close together in the chasing pack. Of the top 20 teams, only Chile have been in action recently, their 3-2 victory over Paraguay seeing them overtake Russia and move into 12th place on the global ladder.

Although there was not much movement this month, some teams did still climb into their highest-ever position on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, namely Bosnia-Herzegovina (19th, up 1), Panama (47th, up 2), Estonia (52nd, up 5) and Belize (133rd, up 8). Montenegro (50th, up 1) have also returned to the top 50.

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