Jordan stays 109th in FIFA rankings, loses to Iraq over weekend

AMMAN — Jordan settled at 109th in the latest FIFA rankings issued on Thursday as the team prepares to resume its Asian Cup qualifying journey following the end of the local football agenda.

The squad is still out of the Asian top 10 trailing Iran (30), South Korea (43), Japan (45), Australia (48), Saudi Arabia (53), Uzbekistan (62), the UAE (75), Syria (77), China (82), Qatar (88), and India (100). Jordan’s best FIFA Ranking was 37th in 2004, while its lowest ranking was 152nd in 1996.

Brazil, who booked a slot to the 2018 World Cup, leads World rankings at No. 1 followed by Argentina, Germany, Chile, Columbia, France, Belgium, Portugal, Switzerland and Spain. 

African semifinalist Egypt are the top-ranked Arab team at 20th, followed by Tunisia 41st, Algeria 53rd and Morocco 56th.

Over the weekend, Jordan lost 1-0 to Iraq in a historic match in Basra, attended by HRH Prince Ali, president of the Jordan Football Association, after a decades long ban on international matches in Iraq.

The friendly came amid a training camp before resuming Asian Cup Group C qualifiers, as Jordan leads Group C after it scored 7-0 win over lowly Cambodia while Vietnam held Afghanistan 1-1 in the opening matches of the 2019 Asian Cup qualifiers. 

Jordan’s squad, which was eliminated from the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, now aims to advance to the Asian finals. The team last beat Hong Kong 4-0 in a friendly and will repeat the encounter on June 6 before playing their second Asian Cup Group C qualifier on June 13 against Vietnam in Saigon. 

Asian teams in the qualifiers are playing in six groups with group winners and four best runners-up (total 12 teams) advancing to the 2019 AFC Asian Cup finals, as well as the final round of qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Teams already having qualified include Australia, China, Iraq, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Thailand, Uzbekistan and host the UAE.