The Philippine men national team nicknamed Azkals moved up FIFA ranking from the previous 135th position to the current 116th in the world. In the comparison for Asian countries, Philippine soccer team were placed 16th overall in the Asian Football confederation.
The Iranian national team received a huge profile leap after being ranked 1st in the Asian Football Confederation and 42nd in the full list by FIFA.
The Azkals recently finished third in the group H world cup qualifying campaign. This is believed to be one of the reasons for the huge leap by the Philippine national team. The team also had an historic 3-2 win over tough opponents North Korea but lost the chance to play at the world cup finals. Despite the loss, the team will advance to the third round of the 2019 Asian Football Confederation cup.
Aside Iran in first place in the Asian ranking, Australia are in second place, Korea Republic next in line before Japan, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and United Arab Emirates respectively. China Republic, Jordan and Qatar completed the top ten list in Asia.
In the world ranking, South American countries lead with Argentina in 1st place, Belgium in second, Chile followed then Columbia and Germany to make up the first five. Spain, Brazil, Portugal, Uruguay and England completed the top ten teams in the world based on FIFA ranking.
Filipino won only one of their world cup qualification matches, their last against Korea DPR. They had lost four previous matches and played a draw in one. The Philippine soccer team were humbled by Uzbekistan in a match that ended 1-5 at home September last year. Next was a draw with Korea DPR in a thrilling away match. Bahrain, Yemen and Uzbekistan compounded the woes of Philippine. The team still has a two-way friendly lined up against Kyrgyzstan much later this year.