Oppo Wins Maldivian Football Player of the year award

The Haveeru awards 2005 have been presented to the winners at an awarding ceremony held Friday night at Dharubaaruge. The national team and New Radiant Sports Club's talented forward Ibrahim Fazeel (Oppo) won the award.

Oppo edged out teammate Ali Ashafaq and Victory goalkeeper Imran to the prize. Oppo won the vote - with 2185 points, while Ali Ashafaq had 1499 and Imran accumulated 1479.

Maldives remains at 133 while India jumps 9 places to secure 118th spot

The Indian football team's world position got yet another boost as they bagged the 118th spot in the latest FIFA rankings.

India is only slightly behind Hong Kong, Turkmenistan and Barbados on ranking points. Maldives is the next highest South Asian team at 133. Sri Lanka and Pakistan are ranked 145th and 158th respectively.

Japan was the top Asian team at 15th position ahead of Iran at 19th and South Korea at 29th place. Brazil continued to head the overall rankings ahead of the Czech Republic and the Netherlands,according to information received here. Among the top 10 team, the United States has moved up to joint seventh position along with neighbours Mexico.