In the latest FIFA rankings, Stephen Constantine’s men have managed to climb one rung despite the implementation of a new model...

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have climbed to 96th in the latest FIFA World Ranking, released on Thursday. Stephen Constantine’s men are tied with Georgia in the 96th spot.

The Blue Tigers were ranked 97th in the previous rankings but have managed to make the climb to 96th after FIFA implemented a new ranking system called ELO.

The ELO method adds or subtracts points to a national team’s already existing total before a match. Hence, in theory, FIFA rankings will now change with each passing match as compared to the previous method of updating the rankings once every month on a particular date.

are preparing for the upcoming AFC 2019 which kicks-off in January. They are placed in the Group A alongside hosts , Bahrain and . UAE's ranking is unchanged at 77, Bahrain's ranking is also unchanged and are placed at the 113th position. The other team from India's group, , have also maintained their 122nd ranking.

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This means that India are still the second-best side in the group on the basis of the latest rankings.

India are next set to take part in the SAFF Championship in September. India are grouped with Sri Lanka (ranked 200) and Maldives (150) in Group B of the tournament.

On the global front, have moved up six spots after their World Cup triumph to be ranked first while are second. , and make up the top five.