What happened to the "Thailand National Team" as their world ranking dropped at the end of 2025 following the latest FIFA rankings announcement?
On 22 December 2025, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) officially announced the latest world rankings (FIFA rankings) for December 2025, marking the end of the year after some continental national team programs concluded.
It was revealed that the "War Elephants," Thailand's national team, slipped from 95th to 96th in the world rankings because they had no international matches in December, retaining their 1,243.27 points while other nations continued to play.
Meanwhile, the Palestine national team rose from 96th to 95th place, replacing Thailand, as they competed in the FIFA Arab Cup 2025 from 25 November to 11 December, earning an additional 14.18 points.
This brought Palestine’s FIFA ranking points to 1,244.73, just 1.46 points higher than Thailand’s total.
The Thailand national team will regroup during the FIFA international window in March 2026 to compete in the final match of the Asian Cup 2027 qualifiers, Group D, hosting Turkmenistan—who also have 12 points but hold a better head-to-head record—on 31 March 2026. The match will be broadcast live on Thairath TV, Channel 32.