The national football team dropped to 88th in the world and 13th in Asia. The poor record in the Asian Cup is the main reason for the decline in the national football rankings.
The Chinese team was ranked 96th in March 2016 and rose to 81st in April of that year. Since then, the lowest world ranking for the team was 86th, until this update. In other words, the current 88th position is the team's worst ranking in the past nearly eight years.