ZURICH: Newly crowned Asian champions Qatar have jumped a massive 38 spots to 55 in FIFA /Coca-Cola World Ranking, their best position since 1993, after their stunning victory at Asian Cup.

Qatar, who who won the Asian Cup by beating Japan in the final last Friday, is now the top ranked country in the Gulf region and fifth in Asia.

Coached by Felix Sanchez, Qatar remained unbeaten in seven consecutive matches to cling the continent’s biggest national team event held in the UAE.

The 2019 AFC Asian Cup win has been responsible almost all of the notable changes in this, the first Ranking of 2019, with the scarcity of games in other confederations leaving the top 20 unchanged – and Belgium still in pole position.

Fellow finalists Japan jumped 23 places to rank 27th, while Korea Republic is 38th, up 15 and Jordan 97th, up 12. There were also significant upwards moves by the likes of Iraq (80th, up 8), Iran (22nd, up 7) and Uzbekistan (89th, up 6).

Another consequence of these changes is that Asia has boosted its numbers in the Ranking’s top 50.

The AFC is now represented by four teams, up one on the last edition, and now stands level with Africa, whose numbers have been depleted by Congo DR (51st, down 2) dropping out.

The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 4 April 2019.