Cebu Football

Ever since I got back from Bacolod for the AFF Qualifiers I've been checking and rechecking the FIFA website for improvements of our rankings. Today is Dec. 11, almost two weeks since the final match of the Asiad.

What, dear FIFA, has said about us in their rankings?

It says that we, the Philippines have earned...drum roll please...34 points for the month of November.

At first I thought, there must have been a mistake, 34 points for three wins and a 1-2 loss? The first update of the FIFA rankings was done on Nov. 28, a week after the AFF qualifiers ended. I got a text from PFF about the new rankings, but, I already wrote a story about the rankings a day prior and asked "how come we got 34 measly points?"

I was told, that the last two games of RP wasn't included in the new computation.

But check this, as of Dec 6, the new rankings released by FIFA, we still have 34 points!

This from the FIFA website on Nov. 28
Syria on the up
(AFP) KARIM JAAFAR
(FIFA.com) 28 Nov 2006
*at this day, the Philippines is at 184th

This from the FIFA website on Dec 6
New hope for Bolivia
Bolivian players celebrate a goal by Oscar Sánchez.
(AFP) Aizar Raldes
(FIFA.com) 06 Dec 2006
*Until this day, the Philippines is still at 184th

IF you check the rankings, the Philippines earned, for their troubles, 34 points. As to our neighbors?

Cambodia, which won one lousy match, lost to the Philippines 0-1 and finished second at the bottom, earned 48 points and improved seven places to 178th.

Brunei? The country we beat 4-1, with del Rosario scoring that superb goal off a free kick from 30 yards, that rich nation earned 72 points to go up 13 places at 167.

As to the Philippines, FIFA gave us 34 points for our troubles thank you very much.

Now, the question is. Are the final two matches of the Philippines included in the new rankings?

Heck, the last report on the rankings was dated Dec. 6.

I've never been a soft drinks guy, I stopped drinking Coke two years ago. Maybe it's time that I tell my friends to shift to Pepsi. Coke not only eskews your appetite. It seems, it also screws your arithmetic.