THE little arrow in the Fifa webpage points up; Malaysia usually don't get many of this. Well, the national football team were one of the four biggest movers in the latest world rankings released by Fifa.
Malaysia has moved up from 154th to 147th. And this has cheered up fans who were used to being let down by the national team.
The other major movers were Kazakhstan (114th, plus 11), Cuba (167th, plus 10) and Greece (48th, plus seven). Malaysia were rewarded with the Fifa points after a creditable performance in the recent Asian Cup qualifiers.
They emerged as runners-up in Group E at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil after beating Turkmenistan 3-1, Bangladesh 4-1 and losing 2-1 to Bahrain. And in International A friendlies earlier this month at Bukit Jalil, Malaysia won against Brunei (4-0) and Hong Kong (2-0).
This has led to former international Datuk Jamal Nasir believing that Harimau Malaya can get ranked in the Fifa top 100 if they continue their momentum.
"I am confident Malaysia can go below the world top 100 if we continue working hard at it. And this will enable our players to play in Europe. That is what we should strive towards.
"I hope we can achieve this (top 100) by this year or next year," said Jamal today. "I think it is important to improve our world ranking (before the 2023 Asian Cup Finals). This is Malaysia's best performance which I haven't seen for a long time.
"Prior to this, our team had been just been stagnant. We saw in the Asian Cup qualifiers... Malaysia put up a good fight especially against Bahrain, whom we lost to because of our own mistakes."
Jamal also urged the national Under-23 team to buck up as their players will have to do their part to help Malaysia's world ranking.
Jamal also urged the FA of Malaysia to look into organising more international friendlies against higher ranked teams.
The next Fifa window is scheduled for Sept 19-27, and it will be the last avenue of the year for Malaysia to improve their world ranking before the draw for the 2023 Asian Cup.
Jamal noted that the playing style of new national coach Kim Pan Gon is more aggressive compared with the national team in recent years.
"Everybody is fighting for the ball, and that is a good sign. If they continue like this, I don't think we'll dip in the world ranking."