ZURICH, Switzerland:  Asian champions Qatar have broken into the top-50 again, according to FIFA rankings released by the world governing body for the final time in 2021. Ranked 51 prior to the start of the FIFA Arab Cup, Qatar are now ranked 48 after posting five wins out of six matches at the Nov 30-Dec 18 tournament played at 2022 FIFA World Cup venues in Qatar. Coached by Felix Sanchez, Qatar finished in third place at the 16-team tournament played as a trial event for next year's FIFA World Cup. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, only 352 full internationals were played in 2020. Not since 1987 (323 matches) had so few games been played in a calendar year. By contrast, planet football made up for lost time in 2021 with a record breaking 1116 matches played, FIFA said in a story released on Thursday. And while the quantity of games changed radically from one year to the next, the top ranked team in the FIFA/ Coca-Cola World Ranking has remained the same! For the fourth year in a row, Belgium (1st) end the calendar year in pole position, albeit only just ahead of Brazil (2nd) by 2.1 points. France (3rd) complete the podium for 2021. For their part, Canada (40th) are the year’s ‘Most Improved Side’ having picked up no fewer than 130.32 points over the last 12 months. Their journey to the semi-finals of the 2021 Gold Cup as well as impressive results in FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 qualifying have been major factors in their rise. Winners of UEFA EURO 2020 and the Copa America 2021 respectively, Italy (6th + 115.77 points compared to December 2020) and Argentina (5th +108.51 points compared to December 2020), have also seen their points tally increase dramatically this year. The same goes for the USA (11th + 103.51 points compared to December 2020) and England (4th + 85.52 points compared to December 2020). Equatorial Guinea (114th + 59.78 points compared to December 2020) made the most impressive progress among African teams, while Saudi Arabia (51st + 81.71 points compared to December 2020) did the same in Asia. However, just in terms of last month, the most improved Asian team are Indonesia (164th + 11.13 points). Winners of the FIFA Arab Cup 2021, Algeria (29th +3) jointly made the best progress in terms of places along with Qatar (48th + 3) and Thailand (115th +3). ENDS