No international assignments in recent times continued to take a toll on India’s world ranking with the team sliding six places to 154th in the latest standings.India have not played an international game since the two-legged World Cup qualifier (first round) in September and the team has lost 10 places since January this year with the euphoria generated by the Nehru Cup win seemingly a thing of past.India was last placed outside the top 150 in August 2007 when it was ranked 151st. It is now at its lowest ranking in nine months.India’s next international assignment will be the South Asian Football Federation championship in Sri Lanka and Maldives in June and the AFC Challenge Cup in August in Hyderabad.India is ranked 27th in Asia and are just ahead of South Asian rivals Maldives (159th), Sri Lanka (160th) and Pakistan (161st).India face Nepal (183rd), Pakistan and Maldives in the group stages of the SAFF Cup.Argentina continue to be the top ranked team in the world, ahead of Brazil and Italy.The only changes in the top 10 is Greece gaining two places to number eight at the expense of Portugal and Netherlands.Japan is the highest ranked Asian team at number 36, ahead of Australia (43rd) and South Korea (50th).
