Bulgaria Climbs Five Positions to 70th Place in FIFA Ranking

 The Bulgarian men's national football team climbed five positions in the latest FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking released on Thursday.

At present, Bulgaria occupies the 70th place jointly with the team of South Africa, with both teams having 500 points.

There are no changes to the first thirteen teams in the ranking as only 58 matches have been played since the beginning of the year.

Belgium continues to occupy the top spot, followed by Argentina, the reigning European champion Spain, the reigning world champion Germany and the reigning South American champion Chile.

The best mover in the ranking is Armenia, which climbed seven positions to the 116th place, while the worst mover is Sao Tome e Principe which dropped fifteen spots to the 174th place.

Since Bulgaria did not qualify for this year's European championship in France, the team will prepare for the forthcoming 2018 World Cup qualifiers which begin in September.

Bulgaria was drawn in one of the toughest groups along with the teams of the Netherlands, France, Sweden, Belarus and Luxembourg.

In March, Bulgaria will play friendly matches against Macedonia and Portugal, while later in June it will participate in the Kirin Cup along with the teams of Japan, Denmark and Bosnia and Herzegovina.