Iran fell 1 positions to be 60  in January’s FIFA world football rankings, which were announced on Thursday.

The 3 times winners of Asian Cup slide continues after the defeat at home against Uzbekistan in the FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 qualifiers. In December 2012 , Iran dropped 15 position to 59. but mainatained its ranking as the forith best team in Aisa. In the new years ranking and the first of 2013 , Iran dropped in the Asian ranking as well , it is now the fifth best among Asian countries with Uzbekistan easily taking Iran’s position.

The top ten ranks remained the same as Spain stayed top while Germany remained second before Argentina and Italy.

Top Asian Teams in FIFA Ranking

	FIFA Rank	Zone Rank	Team	Pts		+/- Pos
	21	1	Japan	834	1
	34	2	Korea Republic	687	1
	36	3	Australia	674	0
	56	4	Uzbekistan	555	11
	60	5	Iran	537	-1
	86	6	China PR	415	2
	89	7	Iraq	392	3
	95	8	Jordan	375	-1
	99	9	Korea DPR	363	0
	103	10	United Arab Emirates	346	-7

AlJazeera English reports

Masoud Shojaei is the only Iranian player in Spain’s Primera Division and is an icon to young footballers back home.

Osasuna might be in a fight to avoid relegation from Spain’s Primera Division, but one of their players is still enjoying star status in his home country.

With more than forty international football caps to his name, Masoud Shojaei is an icon to many young Iranian footballers, and he takes this responsibility very seriously.

Matt Rumsey reports from Pamplona, Spain.

Tehran

Team Melli coach Carlos Queiroz has stated that Iran has quite a turbulent path towards qualification to the FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014.  Queiroz was interviewed by BBC Persian Service.  The Portuguese coach left for vacation after the defeat by Uzbekistan, according to the official Iranian news agency while also visiting London where the interview was conducted with the BBC.

 Queiroz said that Team Melli should have defeated Lebanon to ease the worries and reduce the pressure towards the qualification but the defeat in Beirut made it quite demanding for us. “Even with 8 of our players missing, we should have beaten Lebanon in Beirut, instead we suffered a bitter defeat which made our task that much more difficult for the qualification.” Queiroz said.

In explaining some of the problems that team has faced, Queiroz pointed to Perspolis players as the source of a major setback. “Despite Perspolis buying the best players of the league including many Team Melli players, they failed to capitalize on their resources and the team dipped in the table. When the team was not doing well in the leagues, it is natural that their forms were reflected in the national Team as well.” In veiled criticism towards his compatriot Jose Manuel , the ex-Pesrpolis Coach who was sacked by the club recently, Queiroz gave the example of the forward line of his team. ” We have Ansarifard , Ghazi and Ali Karimi in the forward line and they are all Perspolis players who did not do very well with Team melli hence reflecting their form with the club.” “ I do not have a magic wand to make to create miracles nor to create players. I have to depend on the players produced by the clubs” said Queiroz in justifying the poor performance of Team Melli in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

Carlos Queiroz expressed his satisfaction with living in Iran. He is impressed with the reception he is getting from the fans and wherever he ventures. He said that he has lots of friends who take him around and especially to museums and other attractions. He also said that he has no problem with the food in Iran as the country has so much good food that he spends much of his spare time eating the good Iranian Cuisine.

Carlos Queiroz feels confident and hopeful that Iran can make. However, he stressed that the team must win the remaining matches in order to fulfill this ambition.

Team Melli’s next official match will be against Lebanon in the Asian Cup 2015 qualifiers.

Watch Carlos Queiroz interview with BBC Persian