TEHRAN (Tasnim) Japan maintained its status as Asias top side in the latest FIFA Mens World Ranking released on Thursday, while Iran moved down one place.

Japan still is the best Asian team, despite slipping two places to sit 19th globally, and Iran dropped one spot to 21st but held on to second position in Asia.

Kuwait made the biggest jump, moving three spots to 135 and 25th in Asia.

There were also positive moves for Tajikistan (104), Malaysia (123), Turkmenistan (138) and the Philippines who all improved their global rankings by two spots.

Korea Republic strengthened their hold on third, remaining 23rd in the world.

Australia dropped one spot, moving to 25th in the global standings while Qatar stayed fifth in Asia at 53.

Uzbekistan improved by one position to 54th with Iraq (58th) and Saudi Arabia (59th) occupying seventh and eighth spots respectively.

Jordan made the biggest leap among the continents top 10, climbing from 64th to 62nd but remained ninth, ahead of the United Arab Emirates (67).