Indian football team reaches 101st spot in FIFA rankings

The Indian men's football team surged up by two places to reach the 101st spot in the latest Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) rankings released on Thursday. 

The Sunil Chhetri-led side, who have not played any international match since the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup in January, is currently standing with a total of 1,219 points and lies 18th among the Asian countries in the rankings. 

In the Asian Cup, India kicked off their campaign on a promising note as they crushed Thailand by 4-1 in a Group A match to record their biggest victory in the history of the tournament. 

However, Chhetri's side failed to capitalise on the same and slumped to two back-to-back defeats at the hands of hosts UAE and Bahrain, respectively to eventually knock out of the tournament. 

Following the exit, India's coach Stephen Constantine stepped down from his position and the team is now without a coach. 

Meanwhile, Belgium retained their spot at the top of the football rankings, with World Cup winners France and Brazil completing the top three. 

Qatar, who defeated the UAE to lift the Asia Cup title, continued to remain at the 55th place.

While runners up UAE climbed up by 12 places to reach 67th spot, Japan (26) and South Korea (37) are the other Asian nations to make impressive gains in their rankings.