Malta women gain points but drop one place in FIFA rankings

Manuela Tesse’s side are now in 87th, start Euro 2025 qualifiers in April.

Malta dropped one place into 87th in the latest rankings issued by FIFA, on Friday.

Manuela Tesse’s side did gain +1.89 points following their win over the Faroe Islands and the prestigious draw against Belarus, who at the time was sitting 30 places above Malta.

However, their new points tally – 1251.63, was not enough to overcome Asia’s Bahrain (1254.12) while Puerto Rico, who represent Concacaf, jumped 18 places into 85th.

Next month, Malta will start its League B campaign in the UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 qualifications with a double-header against the Northern Ireland and Portugal.

Leaders Spain (1st) have extended their advantage over their nearest challenger, which is now England (2nd, up 2).

Though beaten in the UEFA Nations League final by La Roja, France (3rd) retain their place in the global top three.

Despite being crowned Concacaf champions on March 10, the USA (4th, down 2) slip out of that top three, paying a heavy price for a 2-0 group-phase defeat to Mexico.

Germany (5th, up 1) move into the top 5, while Brazil (10th, up 1) slot back into a top 10 that also features Sweden (6th, down 1), Japan (7th, up 1), the Netherlands (8th, down 1) and Canada (9th, up 1).

Finally, Iraq (172nd) have now joined the World Ranking, which now features a record 193 national teams.

That figure could be eclipsed in June, with six more teams just one official match away from joining, namely Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Gibraltar, Libya and Sudan.

The next FIFA/Coca-Cola Women’s World Ranking will be published on 14 June 2024.