China drops to historic low in FIFA ranking

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, November 20, 2003

China drops to historic low in FIFA ranking

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China has dropped to a historic low of 12th place among Asian nations according to the latest FIFA world ranking. However, the country succeeded in becoming a seeded team for the 2006 World Cup Asian qualifiers.

China was ranked 83rd place in the new list, which was released in Wednesday, down from last month's 78th place.

Despite being held to a draw by Peru in the latest round of World Cup qualifiers, world champions Brazil still top the ranking, with France, Spain and Argentina trailing in their wake.

China's drop was mainly due to the lack of top level international matches over the last month.

This is the first time that China has fallen from the top ten of Asian teams; yet one month before the release of the latest FIFA ranking, the Chinese Football Association succeeded in making the country a seeded team for the 2006 World Cup Asian qualifiers.

FIFA had proposed to the Asian Football Confederation that seeded teams for the 2006 World Cup Qualifiers according to their world rankings, but in a diplomatic maneuver, China persuaded the AFC to make the draw based on Asian teams' performances at the 2002 World Cup and eventually became a seed. (CRI)

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