Sports Pearls/ 8 March 2025: FIFA Ranking-2025 list has contains many surprising and interesting facts. According to this list, the men of the world’s top military and economic powers lag far behind their extremely poor neighbors. Another important fact, Brazil and Argentina have been two super-powers of football for the past century, but the women of Brazil and Argentina are far behind the women of the rest of the world in this sport. American women have been dominating soccer/football since past 30 years.
Russia and China ranked below neighboring countries in FIFA Ranking-2025
The United States, Russia and China have dominated the Olympics for the past century. But in the case of soccer/football, the men of these super-powers are far behind their neighbors and comparatively very small and poor countries. Currently, the war-torn Ukraine is in the 30th place with 1530.04 points in the FIFA World Ranking-2023 list. While Russia, the world’s top military power, is on the 37th position with 1495.53 points. Similarly, the People’s Republic of China, which is among the top 5 super-powers in the world in terms of military and economic power, is at the 81st place in this list with 1297.98 points. But its neighboring small country Korea is in 27th place with 1536.01 points. Similarly, compared to China, the African country Burkina Faso, which is considered to be equal to ‘salt in flour’, is in 50th place with 1433.91 points, while Mali, another extremely poor country in the same region, is in 53rd place with 1430.75 points.
USA’s position better than Russia-China, but not than neighboring countries
The men’s team of the top superpower USA is in a much better position than Russia and China. The American men are ranked 13th in the FIFA World Rankings-2023 with 1653.77 points. On the other hand, its neighboring poor country Mexico (Mexico) is present at the 15th place with 1631.87 points. Similarly, among the other poor countries of the American continent, Uruguay is on the 16th place and Colombia is on the 17th place. According to the famous Punjabi saying ‘Neither out of three nor out of thirteen’, Senegal, which compared to America, does not considerable in any rank by any manner, is also close to USA at the 18th place with 1613.21 points.
Germany also lags behind the neighboring countries
The largest military and economic power of the European region, the German team is in 14th place with 1647.42 points. While a small country that has been a victim of civil war for a whole decade, Croatia is in the 7th place with 1730.02 points. Similarly, in terms of military and economic power, the European countries Italy, Portugal and Spain, which are much weaker than Germany, are ranked 8th, 9th and 10th respectively.
So called ‘World Guru’ India is in very bad state
We all know that Indian politicians often boast of being ‘world gurus’ by quoting old scriptures and mythological stories. But in the FIFA Ranking-2023 released by the International Football Federation (FIFA), India’s condition is worse than the poorest African countries and the countries of the Arab region, which have been badly destroyed by wars in the last two decades. According to the latest ranking list released by the International Football Federation (Fifa), India is at the 101st place out of 211 countries, with 1200.66 points.
On the other hand, among the very poor countries of the African continent, Ghana is 60th with 1396 points, Democratic Republic of Congo (Congo) is 70th with 1338.61 points, Zambia is 86th with 1280.52 points, Uganda is 89th with 1257.03 points. Destroyed Iraq (Iraq) is 67th with 1347 points, Syria (Syria), a victim of civil war, is 90th with 1246.75 points, while Palestine (Palestine), which is fighting for its existence, is at 93rd place with 1239.19 points. Similarly, many other poverty-stricken countries are far ahead of India in many other sports, including football. The only relief in the FIFA list for India is that New Zealand, the top country in the world’s most honest, beautiful and people’s favorite countries to live in, is only one place above India in terms of football, i.e. 100th.
