KUALA LUMPUR, April 1 (Bernama) -- The national football team, Harimau Malaya, has dropped from 121st to 138th place in the latest world rankings released by the FIFA.
Based on today’s latest update, Harimau Malaya, who have accumulated a total of 1,086.22 points, slipped 17 places following a 1-3 defeat to Vietnam in their final Group F match of the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers yesterday.
The drop in ranking was also influenced by a decision by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) not to count two of Harimau Malaya’s previous qualifying matches against Nepal and Vietnam.
Based on the original results of the two matches, Malaysia defeated Nepal 2-0 at the Sultan Ibrahim Stadium on March 25 last year and thrashed Vietnam 4-0 at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil on June 10 last year.
However, on March 17, the AFC Disciplinary and Ethics Committee made a decision to declare Malaysia to lose both matches by 0-3 scorelines after Harimau Malaya were found to have fielded ineligible players.
The decision was made following a document falsification issue involving seven Harimau Malaya players, namely Gabriel Palmero, Facundo Garces, Rodrigo Holgado, Imanol Machuca, Joao Figueiredo, Jon Irazabal and Hector Hevel.
-- BERNAMA
