Pakistan moves up five places in FIFA rankings

ISLAMABAD, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan has leapt up five places to the 161st in the latest FIFA world rankings, according to a report Saturday by a local news agency NNI.

The beginning of the year 2008 saw Pakistan at the 171st and went further down to 181 but returned back to the respectable berth, outpacing Malaysia, which is also headquarter of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

The rankings system was revised after the World Cup 2006 and results from the last four years rather than eight are now being taken into account.

"FIFA have acknowledged the need for a substantial revision and their experts have come up with a satisfactory solution for a new way of calculating the ranking. They are aware that it is difficult to meet everybody's expectations, but are confident that the new system will provide an accurate measure of the strength of every member associations," said Pakistan Football Federation President Faisal Saleh Hayat who congratulated officials and players for their memorable 9-2 win over Guam on April 6, the biggest in the history of Pakistan football.

Since its introduction in August 1993, the FIFA world ranking has become a regular part of international sports reports and an important indicator for FIFA's 208 member associations to find out where their respective teams stand in world football and how they are progressing.

The next ranking will be published on May 7, 2008.