Although club football has slowly restarted or been scheduled to restart in various leagues around the world, the spread of COVID-19 remains an obstacle to the staging of international matches. This has again affected the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, which remains unchanged.

Belgium remain at the summit ahead of France and Brazil, who complete the podium, while England and Uruguay continue to occupy fourth and fifth respectively. Lying in wait behind them are, in descending order, Croatia, Portugal, Spain, Argentina and Colombia.

Malta therefore remains third from bottom in Europe (184th), just ahead of Gibraltar (196) and San Marino (209). Lying just ahead of Malta are Liechtenstein (180) and Moldova (175).

Gibraltar, San Marino and Liechtenstein will be playing in Group D2 of the UEFA Nations League while Malta was drawn with Latvia (137), Andorra (135) and Faroe Islands (110).

Malta was due to play a number of friendly matches ahead of this first competitive test for new coach Devis Mangia but last March’s games against Gibraltar and Azerbaijan and the games scheduled for June against Slovenia and Portugal were called off.