Ammon News - AMMONNEWS (The Jordan Times) - Jordan dropped to 124th place - its lowest rank of the year - when end of the year FIFA World Ranking was issued on Wednesday.

In zonal ranking, Jordan is 15th among Asian Football Confederation (AFC) teams, behind Australia (28), Japan (35), South Korea (42), Iran (43), Saudi Arabia (48), Uzbekistan and Iraq (72), Bahrain (80), Qatar (84), Oman (96), China (100), Syria (105), the UAE (110) and North Korea (113).

Among Arab teams, Jordan is still in 14th place, trailing Egypt (16), Morocco (41),
Tunisia (46), Saudi Arabia (48), Algeria (64), Iraq (72), Bahrain (80), Libya (82),
Qatar (84), Sudan (93), Oman (96), Syria (105) and the UAE (110), and leads Kuwait
(127), Yemen (145), Lebanon (150), Mauritania (158), Palestine (179), Djibouti (188), Comoros (198) and Somalia (200).

After holding a top-five spot among Asian and Arab teams and the best ever rank of 37th in 2004, Jordan ended the year at the lowest ever since 1999 and outside the top 100 after ending at 40th in 2004, 86th in 2005 and 95th in 2006. This year, the team's highest rank was 100th in June.

On the world scene, Euro 2008 champs Spain remained atop the top 10 followed by Germany and the Netherlands, who jumped to third. They are trailed by Italy, Brazil, Argentina, Croatia, England, Russia, and Turkey, who went up three places to squeeze into the top 10 edging out the Czech Republic and Portugal.

Australia remained top Asian team as it improved its standing going up nine spots to 28 as did Japan who went up three spots to 35th and South Korea who climbed 11 places to 42nd.

Among Arab teams, Egypt climbed five spots to 16th as did Morocco, up two places to
41st, and Tunisia, up a spot to 46th.

Among African nations Cameroon is followed by Egypt and Nigeria, in South America it's Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, in North and Central America, US, Mexico and Honduras, in Oceania it's New Zealand, New Caledonia and Fiji, and in Europe the world's top three - Spain, Germany and the Netherlands - maintained their places.

This month, big drops were New Zealand, down 26 places to 86th, Eritrea, down 25 to
162nd, Belarus, down 20 to 84th, Moldova, down 21 to 97th, and Barbados, down 22 to
122nd.

Biggest climbers were Fiji, up 31 spots to 106th, Grenada, up 21 to 118th, South Korea, up 11 to 42nd, Kenya, up 17 to 68th, and Jamaica, up 18 to 65th.

The national team regrouped this week to start final preparations for the AFC 2011
Asian Cup. The squad will host its Chinese counterpart on December 21, before leaving for Turkey to hold a training camp from December 30 to January 8 during which they are expected to play Uzbekistan.

Head coach Eduardo Vingada is expected to name the final line-up after Wihdat and Faisali players end their club duties in the Round of 16 Leg 1 Arab Champions League matches.

The first qualifier will be on January 14 against Thailand, following which the team is slated to have a camp in Malaysia, January 20-26, ahead of the second qualifier against Singapore on January 28.