JEDDAH, 15 July 2006 — Statistics don’t lie. But this doesn’t mean the numbers are convincing enough to not be open to question.
After failing to produce the desired result in the recent World Cup in Germany, Saudi Arabia have dropped 46 places in the monthly FIFA rankings to 81st from 35th position.
As this developed, the General Presidency of Youth Welfare Prince Sultan ibn Fahd yesterday directed Abdullah Al-Dabel to communicate with FIFA and discuss the unconvincing Saudi ranking.
Al-Dabel, an honorary member of the Saudi Football Federation, was told to have this injustice fixed. According to a statement issued by Prince Sultan, the other national teams when compared to Saudi Arabia did not have positive results in championships and competitions.
The sharp Saudi slide in the rankings stirred a hornet’s nest from football fans who felt that their beloved Green Hawks deserved a better spot in the newly-released rankings notwithstanding the fact that they failed to get past the group stage at Germany 2006.
All the Asian teams that played in Germany with the exception of Australia have been made to pay for their unconvincing display but none so dearly than Saudi Arabia.
The Kingdom team finished last in Group F. They drew their first match 2-2 against Tunisia, performed poorly against Ukraine and lost 4-0 before closing out with an unconvincing performance in a 1-0 defeat by Spain. Compared to Saudi Arabia, Iran, who also did not qualify for the second round, dropped just 24 notches to 47th position. Japan slipped 31 places to 49th, South Korea 27 to 56th and Tunisia 10 to 31st position.
Zimbabwe, Mali and Malawi, who are all considered soccer minnows, are curiously ahead of Saudi Arabia in the rankings. Zimbabwe were ranked 66th, Mali 63rd and Malawi 80th.
Talal Rasheed Al-Ghamdi, a Saudi fan, said, “to drop 10 ranks or 20 ranks is something that is acceptable. But to drop by 46 ranks is something strange. I think the FIFA people should review the rank of Saudi Arabia. I know that we did not perform well in the world cup but we were not that bad.”
He said that it simply is illogical that Saudi team should be in the 81st rank behind some admittedly weak teams.
Another Saudi fan, Muhsin Ali, said, “there is something wrong with the ranking because Brazil showed their worst performance in World Cup and yet they remained number one. I do not know on what bases the ranking is made but I think there is something wrong with the ranking and how did the officials classify each team. Portugal, who had enjoyed their best performance ever in a World Cup, dropped by one position to 8th place.
“There is something wrong with this ranking because the Saudi league is one of the strongest leagues in Asia and in the Arab world and that reflects on the national team and yet we dropped sharply?”
Muhanad Muhammad said, “we reached the World Cup for the fourth time in a row and yet we failed to convince the world with our performance.
I think we deserve to drop sharply like this.
What did our national team show? I think we should be brave to admit our mistakes and say that there is something wrong.”
