2015 marked the final demise of Malaysian football. Malaysia started the year ranked 154th in the world out of 209 countries in the FIFA ranking which was the lowest point in history. One would this would be lowest Malaysia can get but the 2018 World Cup AFC Qualifying Group A resulted some unbelievable drubbings for Malaysia.
3:0 by Saudi Arabia
6:0 by Palestine (twice)
10:0 by UAE
Four matches totaled 25 goals against Malaysia, something totally unimaginable during my school days when Malaysia ruled South East Asia and was definitely the top five teams in Asia.
As a result, 2015 ended with Malaysia now ranked 170th out of 209 countries in the FIFA ranking.
From the FIFA graph, Malaysia is on a continuous slide downwards for the past 20 years, more like 35 years from the glory days when we qualified for the Olympics. So where are we compared to our neighbours and with the regulars who used to compete in our Merdeka Cup tournaments whom we beat repeatedly, when even South Korea had feared our team.
- South Korea 51st
- Thailand 133rd
- Hong Hong 137th
- Philippines 139th
- Vietnam 147th
- Singapore 149th
- Myanmar 158th
- India 166th
- Malaysia 170th
- Indonesia 179th
We were neck to neck with the South Koreans, today they are ranked 120 places above us. We were better than all the rest but today, Malaysia is below soccer minnows like Philippines and India. Even little Singapore is ranked higher than Malaysia.
The only consolation we have is that we are ranked above Indonesia. What’s next? Will Indonesia overtake us on the the FIFA ranking in 2016?
Furious Fifties 