Albania loses ground in FIFA ranking

TIRANA, April 12 – Albania’s soccer national team’s global ranking has gone further down in this month’s list. Albania is 70th in the world, or 16 places lower than a month ago.
Its move is linked with the fact it is not holding any intensive friendly meetings. It should be said, however, that Albania beat Malta in March. That is linked with the frequent matches that other countries hold. But it also suffers from many developments in the country too.
Europe occupies the top three places on the FIFA world rankings after Portugal climbed third behind leaders Spain and Germany in this month’s list.
They are followed by four South American sides in Colombia, Uruguay and fierce rivals Argentina and Brazil, who share sixth position.
Greece returns to the top 10 for the first time since October 2012. Malta, which Albania has so often met in friendlies and qualifiers, has gained seven places in this month’s list going to 127th, despite its 2-0 loss away to Albania.
Only six matches were played over the past month. The majority of changes to the FIFA rankings can be attributed to the devaluation of matches from previous years, most of which were FIFA World Cup qualifiers and now have a greatly reduced weight.