Malaysia's football fortunes remained unchanged in the FIFA ranking list as the new year's list released by the world governing body for football saw Malaysia remain in 161st spot.

According to the FIFA ranking list released on the FIFA website www.fifa.com today, Malaysia stayed in 161st position, the same as in December, probably due to lack of international tournaments.

At the Asian and Asean levels, Malaysia's positions also remained unchanged at 31st and fifth respectively in a list of 46 countries (Asian) and 10 countries (Asean).

In Asean the Philippines lead the pack in (122) spot, Thailand (126), Vietnam (136) and Myanmar (159).

The current ranking has placed Malaysia on par with developing countries like Aruba Islands (160), Macedonia (162) and Maldova (165).

Two Latin American countries Argentina with 1,634 points and Brazil with 1,544 maintained first and second places respectively while 2014 World Cup winner Germany are in third on 1,433.

The Ranking list released by FIFA involves 209 countries. -- BERNAMA