The national football squad started 2014 on a positive note after being placed at 154th position in the world ranking issued by (Fifa) yesterday.  

Malaysia had showed inconsistent performance in 2013, being placed at 158th position in January followed by 159th (February), 164th (March), 163rd (April), 161st (May) and maintaining 159th place in June and July.

The Harimau Malaya squad slipped three rungs in August (162) before moving up one rung in Setepmber and to 160th in October before improving to 158th in November and 154th in December.

The latest rankings saw Malaysia in the same league as countries such as Guyana (151); Belize (152); Liechtenstein, Puerto Rico and India (156) apart from Nicaragua at 159th in the world.

Among South-East Asian countries, Malaysia stayed at 7th position behind the Philippines (127), Myanmar (129), Vietnam (143), Thailand (148), Singapore (149) and Laos (153).

At the Asian level, Malaysia maintained at 30th position out of 46 countries.

Meanwhile, Harimau Muda A (National Under-23 squad) chief coach Ong Kim Swee was appointed temporary Harimau Malaya coach after the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) decided not to renew the contract of K Rajagobal at the end of December.

Meanwhile, the 2013 Confederation Cup runners-up, Spain kept the top rank as the best football team in the world with 1,507 points while Germany and Argentina were respectively ranked in second and third best in the world.

Germany and Argentina collected 1,318 points and 1,252 points respectively.

The Fifa ranking involves 209 countries.

- Bernama