India makes surprise 11-place jump in FIFA rankings

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New Delhi, Aug 22: India made a surprise 11-place jump to 151st in the latest FIFA rankings which did not take into account the results of the ongoing Nehru Cup tournament here.

According to FIFA procedure, the men's rankings are published on Wednesdays once in a month and the deadline for rating point calculation is ''Thursday prior to the release date.'' Nehru Cup had started on August 17, a day after the deadline.

India are the third highest movers after Iraq (16 places) and Namibia (12 places).

In AFC rankings also, India made a big jump, moving up six places to 26th from the last month's chart.

Syria, the favourites to win the five-nation Nehru Cup moved up one place to 112nd while Kyrgyzstan (153rd) slipped one place.

Cambodia (173rd) and Bangladesh (176th) also lost three and four spots respectively.

New Asian champions Iraq are the biggest climbers, moving up 16 spots to 64th in overall rankings and now placed seventh in the AFC rankings which is still headed by Japan (41st), followed by Iran (44th) and Australia (49th).

Brazil remain on top overall, though ahead of arch rivals Argentina by a mere 17 rating points while world champions Italy are third, according to information received here today.

France, Germany, Croatia, Netherlands, Spain, Czech Republic and Portugal complete the top 10 in the ranking order from top.

UNI