Bhutan begins to climb to the top of the FIFA Women's World Ranking

June 9 - There may not have been a change at the top of the women's world rankings, but further down the list Bhutan are climbing the mountain.

The Eastern Himalayan Buddhist kingdom moved up to 171st place, up seven places in the ranking of 188 nations. Perhaps more important is what appears to be a growing gap in the performance levels of teams outside the top 50 in the standings.

Bhutan's rise follows victories over Jordan (ranked 73rd and nearly 100 places above Bhutan) and Timor-Leste (156th). The biggest drops in the rankings also come from Asia. Indonesia fell six places to 105th.

Bhutan is one place behind Saudi Arabia which was only ranked for the first time three months ago but has continued to rise.

At the other end of the global hierarchy, the top 5 remains unchanged. The United States is followed by the European quartet made up of Germany, Sweden, England and France.

Below them, Spain moved up a spot to sixth while Olympic champions Canada fell to seventh.

“Among the teams occupying this high part of the table, Denmark (13th, up 2), Nigeria (40th, up 2) and the Philippines (46th, up 3) have all made modest strides, although the the most important changes can be found below”, underlined FIFA.

"Some 11 countries also broke their FIFA Ranking points record: Spain (2002.28), Republic of Ireland (1743.59), Slovenia (1556.25), Philippines (1512 .97), Zambia (1298.31), Cambodia (1144.56), Cyprus (1134.28), Lebanon (1062.88), Pakistan (944.58), Saudi Arabia (844.30) and Bhutan (841.86) ."

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