India have crashed to 142nd in the latest FIFA men’s world rankings, six places down after the 0–1 defeat to Bangladesh in Dhaka. It is India’s lowest standing since October 2016, and the scale of freefall is alarming: a 40-place plunge from the high of 102nd in late 2023.
Bangladesh had not beaten India in 22 years, and the result handed the hosts a three-spot jump to 180th. India now sits 27th among Asia’s 46 nations.
With this fall, India now find themselves ahead of some of the weakest in world football.
All the neighbours sit lower
Bangladesh, even after their Dhaka heroics, remain lodged at 180th. Nepal trail behind at 182nd. Their Asian Cup qualifying run has been dismal, losses to Malaysia (2-0) and Laos (2-1) left them winless and bottom of their group. For all the optimism generated across South Asia, Nepal and Bangladesh still occupy the lowest rungs of global football.
Myanmar’s story is one of an even steeper collapse. Once a respectable mid-tier Asian contender, they were 96th in 1996. The national team has been ravaged by political upheaval. A 10-0 humiliation against Japan in 2021, as senior players boycotted amid national turmoil, remains the country’s worst-ever defeat. Today they languish somewhere in the 160s.
And beneath this group lie the true strugglers: Pakistan at 199th, winless through recent Asian Cup qualifiers; Sri Lanka at around 194th; and smaller neighbours like Maldives (173rd) and Bhutan (189th).
Nations rubbing shoulders with India
Elsewhere, Liberia and Lithuania are among the few nations rubbing shoulders with India in this unflattering bracket. Liberia briefly hit 142nd in mid-2024, riding a flurry of wins, but soon settled back into the mid-140s. Lithuania float around 146th, a familiar position for a side that has never come close to qualifying for a major tournament.
Just beneath India lies a cohort of teams that have spent years drifting along the lower slopes of world football. The Dominican Republic, placed 143rd, have put together a few scattered wins but remain far from any real competitive relevance. Lesotho follow at 144th, a side that rarely breaks through in African qualifying and typically hover in this range. Burundi sit at 145th, unchanged through the latest window and emblematic of a team stuck in stasis, neither collapsing nor improving.
India’s company is now made up of minnows, fading sides and nations battered by internal crises.
The fallen powerhouses
The contrast with established football powers who have endured “slips” is instructive. Sweden, for instance, dropped after a 4–1 loss to Switzerland and a draw with Slovenia — yet they remain around 43rd.
Egypt, despite a minor stumble to 34th, are still among Africa’s elite and have already secured places at both AFCON and the 2026 World Cup. Even China, whose World Cup qualifying failure cost Branko Ivanković his job and pushed them down to roughly 94th, remains a full 50 places above India.
On the continent, the gulf is stark. Japan, Iran, Australia and South Korea operate on an entirely different plane, with top-30 rankings backed by extensive infrastructure, competitive domestic leagues and coherent football ecosystems.
Even European nations with similar demographics or economic profiles such as Belarus, Azerbaijan sit comfortably in the mid-50s.
Which brings us back to the uncomfortable truth: the list of teams worse than India is thin. Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar, Liberia, Lithuania, Sri Lanka, Pakistan — and not many more.
India’s fall is not a gentle dip from a position of strength; it is a tumble from a fragile base that was long overdue for correction.
