FIFA Rankings: Iran Still First in Asia


TEHRAN (Tasnim) - Iranian national football team remained unchanged in the latest FIFA rankings released on Thursday.

Iran is the Asian Football Confederation's highest place team in the rankings, placed a modest 51, followed by Japan in 54th and South Korea in 69th.

World champion Germany completed the year top of the rankings, followed by Argentina and Colombia.

More movement is to be expected in the February edition of the world ranking, which will take into account all of the results from the CAF Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea and the AFC Asian Cup in Australia.

There are 146 non-movers in the 209 teams. Bahrain has made the biggest gain thanks to wins over Saudi Arabia and Jordan, moving up 12 places to 110th in the process.

The only teams to climb more than three places are Lebanon (122nd, up 4) and Vietnam (133rd, up 4), while the Faroe Islands have achieved their highest-ever position of 103rd since the ranking was introduced in 1993.

The biggest fallers this month are Iraq (114th, down 11) and Jordan (93rd, down 12).

The next FIFA World Ranking will be published on 12 February 2015.