Karl Decena, InterAKTV
The Philippines moved back up to its highest ever spot in the latest FIFA World Rankings released Thursday.
The Azkals rose from 145th to their all-time high at 143rd this April, a feat which they also achieved on November last year. The Filipinos remain third in Southeast Asia behind leaders Vietnam (132nd) and Thailand (140th) and 24th in Asia.
The country’s ranking was boosted by the Azkals’ performance in the Asian Football Confederation Challenge Cup qualifiers in Manila last March, where they beat Cambodia, 8-0, and Turkmenistan, 1-0, to top the group and earn a ticket to the tournament proper next year.
Kyrgyzstan, a team the Azkals might face in the Challenge Cup in Maldives next year, made the biggest move in the world ladder, improving by 59 notches to place just ahead of the Philippines at 142nd.
Meanwhile, Japan (29th) remained as the number one team in Asia, followed by South Korea (42nd), Australia (46th), Iran (56th) and Uzbekistan (66th).
Spain also continued its reign at the top spot of the world rankings, followed by Germany, Argentina, Croatia and Portugal.
World governing football body FIFA calculates every country’s ranking based on match results (a win, a loss or a draw), its importance (i.e. a friendly or a World Cup match), and the strength of the nation’s opponent ranking-wise. These points are then accumulated from the country’s past results in the previous four years.
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While this ranking gives PFF a pogi points for these our Grassroots suffered in darkness as all National Youth Teams have no present Team Managers as of today and PFF didn't release any budget for them even the letters which supposedly gives clearance to clubs in order for them to release players for the national team. The U23 Suzuki Cup was even halted due to unknown reasons which the PFF would not give in details to the media. The U13 Little Azkals has been practicing in Negros-San Carlos City with no known Manager yet while U15 Azkals hasn't started their camp yet and their AFC tournament is already scheduled in the last week of May. The U19 Teen Azkals started early but forced to put up a teen azkals soccer academy to be able sustain their financial needs for the team.
ReplyDeleteHow come we praise the PFF for this one? Are they really doing their job?
No they are not. Without organized support for youth football in every Region all we are left with is a hugely expensive Azkals circus. The players may wear a PHI shirt but in no way are they representative of the state of football in the Philippines.
ReplyDeleteThe main issue is the mindset of PFF and fat bastard palami that instant success of taking scrap foreign base players.
ReplyDeleteOnce the pool of foreign base players is gone fotball will go down the drain again.
you should stop insulting our foreign based players as they finally put the philippines on the map of football....of course they play in lower leagues abraid but how many other asian players are in top leagues in europe (apart from japanese or south korean players)? for sure not so many.....
Deletebut i agree with the other point you mentioned: indeed, in case we don't develope and support our grassroot program and youth teams immediately, football will disappear again when the oversea based player pool is empty.....