Which is the lowest ranked football team in the world, according to FIFA?

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) exists to govern and develop the game of football around the world. Since December 1992, FIFA has calculated a ranking for all its affiliated men’s national teams, based on points accumulated in recognised matches. Nowadays, the ranking is sponsored by the Coca-Cola Company and hence known, for sponsorship purposes, as the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking.

All told, the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking includes 211 men’s national teams, of which just one, Eritrea, is unranked. The Eritrean National Football Federation (ENFF) has been beset by various problems, not least the number of players refusing to return home and seeking asylum following away matches. Consequently, the national team has failed to play a match, of any description, since a 1-0 defeat in friendly against Sudan in Asmara on January 25, 2020 and has no FIFA ranking.

Bottom of the pile of the remaining 210 FIFA-affiliated national teams remains San Marino. To be fair, the tiny, landlocked country has the population equivalent to that of a medium-sized British town and the national team did not play its first “official” match until November 14, 1990. Nevertheless, that initial 4-0 defeat by Switzerland in a Euro 92 qualifying match at San Marino Stadium in Serrvalle rather set the tone for the next three and a half decades. Barring a 1-0 win against fellow European minnows Liechtenstein in a friendly match at the same venue on April 28, 2004, San Marino has won just one other match, by the same scoreline, against the same opponents, at the same venue, but in a competitive UEFA Nations League clash, on September 5, 2024.