One Picture, A Thousand Words: Iran's FIFA Ranking
Soccer (football) is the world's most popular and populist sport, so many analysts use changes in ranking of a nation's soccer teams as an indication of that country's changing society, politics, culture and economy. Others dismiss official FIFA rankings due to influences by business and political concerns. Regardless of what analysts think, we thought you want to see for yourself the historic chart for FIFA ranking of Iran's national soccer (fotball) team over the past 20 years:
Noteworthy:
- Sharp decline in Iran's ranking between 1994 and 1996 (to one of the world's worst teams and ranking of 118 in 1996)
- A reversal of the decline and stellar growth of Iran's ranking between 1997 and 2005. In 2004 Iran ranked 17, among the world's top 20 soccer teams.
- Decline between 2005 to present (Iran's most recent ranking last week was 52 in the world).
What happens? Why so much turmoil in a country's ranking in world sports? You can judge for yourself. One thing for sure: Iran's sports are no more predictable than its politics.
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»This is a summary of the original feature in Farsi. To request a more extensive translation of the Farsi text, please contact us.
