The Vietnamese men’s national football team have maintained their position as Southeast Asia’s strongest team, according to the recently-released July global rankings by FIFA.

With the majority of international football fixtures suspended for the past three months as a result of the impact of the novel coronavirus, there has been little change in the rankings in recent times.

The latest rankings have Vietnam on a total of 1,258 points, meaning they are the 14th strongest team in Asia and 94th best side in the world.

Trailing the national team are Thailand, who are ranked as the second best team in Southeast Asia with 1,178 points, whilst down at 113rd in the world. They are followed by the Philippines who maintain their place at 124th in the global rankings, Myanmar, in 136th position in world, and Malaysia at 154th.

The latest table indicate that Japan have kept their place as the leading team in Asia, being ranked at 28th in the world with a total of 1,500 points. They are closely followed by a number of strong regional teams such as Iran, the Republic of Korea, Australia, and reigning Asian Cup champions Qatar.

The United Arab Emirates, who have been drawn in the same group as Vietnam in World Cup qualification, rank eighth in Asia and 71st in the world.

Moving past the recent pandemic, international competitions are scheduled to resume again in October, with there being little chance of the global rankings changing before then.

In terms of the country’s next fixture, the Vietnamese national men’s football team will play a friendly against Kyrgyzstan on October 8 in preparation for their clash against Malaysia in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers in the Asian region on October 13. VOV

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