Bangladesh women face a setback in the women’s FIFA rankings. The new list published today shows the team dropping eight places. This comes only months after they made a record jump of 24 spots to reach 104.
The recent slide began at home. Bangladesh lost 1–0 to Malaysia and 2–1 to Azerbaijan in the tri-nation series in Dhaka. These defeats hurt their ranking at a crucial time.
Their struggles had started earlier in Thailand. Bangladesh played two friendlies there in October and lost 3–0 and 5–1. The team could not recover from those results.
Coach Peter Butler used a high-line defence in all four matches. The plan failed in Thailand, where Bangladesh conceded eight goals in two games. The same problems showed up at home. Bangladesh had a chance to move into the top 100, but they lost both matches in Dhaka and fell eight places instead.
Only a few months ago, the picture was very different. Bangladesh beat a strong Myanmar side away from home in June to qualify for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup for the first time. Before that, Rituparna and her teammates held higher-ranked Jordan and Indonesia to two draws. Those results pushed Bangladesh to their best-ever rise in the rankings.
The latest update shows a sharp change in momentum. Bangladesh must now rebuild and find a way to climb again.
