Recently, the World Football Federation updated the rankings of national teams.
Accordingly, the Vietnamese team has increased 5 places, from 108th to 103rd in the world. This increase took place after the AFC issued a ruling on the results of two matches related to Malaysia in the Asian Cup 2027 qualifiers.
Previously, on March 17, AFC defeated the Malaysian team in matches against Vietnam and Nepal due to using naturalized players against regulations. This result not only changed the situation in the group stage, but also directly affected the accumulated points on the FIFA rankings of the related teams.
With a 3-0 victory over Malaysia, the Vietnamese team was added 24.1 points, including 13.91 points returned and 10.19 points added from the victory result according to the AFC's decision. Thanks to that, coach Kim Sang-sik's team significantly improved their ranking, but could not yet enter the top 100.
In the opposite direction, the Malaysian team is greatly affected by the disciplinary decision. This team has dropped 14 places, falling to 135th in the world. Previously, Malaysia was ranked 121st, the highest level in many years. The annulment of the match results caused the accumulated points to drop sharply, and also led to a significant change in position in the region.
According to the schedule, the Vietnamese team will meet Malaysia again on March 31st at Thien Truong Stadium. This match is no longer decisive for the ticket to the next round in the Asian Cup 2027 qualifiers, but it still has value in terms of FIFA scores as well as evaluating the performance of both teams.
