India coach Manolo Marquez lambasts FIFA Ranking system, calls it a ‘lie’ before friendly against Malaysia

India, in the latest rankings as of October 24th, is already in the top six of the teams among the sides in the third round of 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers.

Manolo Marquez during a training session ahead of the international friendly between India and Malaysia. | Photo Credit: AIFF

India men’s senior team coach Manolo Marquez criticised the FIFA ranking system ahead of his side’s international friendly against Malaysia in Hyderabad on Monday.

“I will tell you one thing that you will set as a headline (gestures). For me, the ranking (system) is a lie. The worst team in Africa is better than most of the teams in another continent. We are not better than Cyprus (127) and we are above them (125),” Marquez told reporters.

“There are teams above us that we can beat perfectly. If you lose one official game, there are a lot of points left. If you win one friendly game, you add a lot of points.”

India, in the latest rankings as of October 24th, is already in the top six of the teams among the sides in the third round of 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers. But it will have to maintain that in the next rankings – on November 28 – to be seeded in Pot 1 for the draw next month.

“Obviously, you cannot compete with the main teams in the world. But in most of the games, you check sides who are worse than us in the ranking. Vietnam was better than us in the ranking. But finally, the game was equal,” Marquez said, reflecting on the 1-1 draw in India’s previous match.

Malaysia (133) is the closest ranked side after India – among the teams in the third round of qualifiers – and comes into the match after a 3-1 win over Laos, which gave it valuable Elo points to bolster its chances to climb up the standings among Asian countries.

However, India has never lost to Malaysia on home soil, winning three and drawing the remaining two in their five clashes so far.

“It’s not about who the opponent is. It’s more about us. For me, it would be very easy without a win to play against the worst team in the ranking. But this is not,” Marquez quipped.

“We need to check our improvement. Our improvement playing with a top team or with a very weak team is not (a good metric). I think that when we play these kinds of games, you can check how the team is,” he added.