Indonesian Football Association general chairman Mochamad Iriawan at a press conference in Jakarta on January 18, 2022. (ANTARA/Michael Siahaan/uyu)

Probably, we will coordinate to have friendly matches with countries from the East Asia region whose FIFA rankings are much higher than oursJakarta (ANTARA) – The Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) said it is coordinating with the Bosnia-Herzegovinian and Slovakian football federations for organizing friendly matches in March 2022 to prepare for the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) championship.

"We are looking for an opponent with a high FIFA ranking to get huge points from the match. In addition, our national team will get good experience," PSSI general chairman Mochamad Iriawan informed here on Thursday.

However, he said he realized that the COVID-19 pandemic may make the plan hard to materialize.

Hence, PSSI has a backup plan if European countries cannot play friendly matches, he added.

"Probably, we will coordinate to have friendly matches with countries from the East Asia region whose FIFA rankings are much higher than ours," the PSSI chairman said.

FIFA has scheduled the first match day on March 21–29, 2022. The next FIFA match day will be around May 30 to June 14, 2022, Iriawan noted.

In the FIFA men’s team ranking released on February 10, 2022, the Indonesian national team's ranking rose to 160, with total points of 1,001.61, he said.

The points increased by 9.3 compared to the previous ranking released on December 23, 2021, after the team emerged as the runner-up of the 2020 ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Championship, held from December 5, 2021, to January 1, 2022, he added.

It was the team's best achievement since Shin Tae-yong was appointed as coach in December 2019, he said. At the time of his appointment, the national team was ranked 173rd.

The ranking dropped to 175 in September 2021, but rose to 165 in October 2021. It then improved further to 164 in December 2021.

Based on the latest FIFA ranking, among the Southeast Asian countries, Indonesia’s rank is still lower than Vietnam (98th), Thailand (112th), the Philippines (129th), Myanmar (152th), and Malaysia (154th).

However, Indonesia has a higher rank than Singapore (161th), Cambodia (171th), Laos (187th), Brunei Darussalam (188th), and Timor Leste (198th).

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Translator: Michael Siahaan, Uyu LimanEditor: Sri Haryati Copyright © ANTARA 2022