The Indian football slipped one spot from 96th position to 97th spot in the FIFA Rankings which were released on Thursday evening, reported IANS. Coached by Stephen Constantine, the Indian football team had reached one of its highest spot (96) recently but slipped again since there was hardly any international match scheduled for it in the month of July. Even though there was a change in India’s position, it didn’t lose a single rating point. The team still has 341 rating points, with no change from their last month’s tally.

The slip was also because of Canada’s brilliant performance recently. The Canadian football team had jumped five spots to 95th following their performances in the CONCACAF Gold Cup. Among the Asian teams, India is still 12th highest ranked side while Iran leads the chart at 24th spot. India is slated to take part in the Champions Cup next where Mauritius and St. Kitts and Nevis are expected to take part. The tri-nation meet was originally scheduled to be held in Chennai but has now been shifted to Mumbai.

When Stephen Constantine had taken over, the Indian football team was ranked at 171st spot. Constantine took over as the national team’s coach for the second time in February 2015 and since then the team has moved up by 77 places in the rankings.

The Indian football team has done remarkably well recently and has now won 13 of its last 15 matches and is unbeaten in the last eight matches. Led by Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, India reached its best ever FIFA Ranking since February 1996 when India were also ranked 94.