The Russian men’s national football team has dropped to a historic low 66th place in FIFA’s latest ranking ahead of the 2018 World Cup in Russia this summer.
With 11 cities preparing to host the tournament between June and July, a mere 5 percent of recently surveyed Russians said they believed in the country's chances of winning the trophy on home turf.
The Russian men’s squad dropped three spots to 66th in FIFA’s rating released on Thursday, having lost friendlies to both Brazil and France last month.
The latest drop marks a significant downturn for the Russia team, which ranked an average 22nd place since the creation of FIFA's ranking in December 1992.
Within its World Cup group, Russia ranks third behind Uruguay and Egypt at 17th and 46th place respectively, and just above Saudi Arabia in 70th place.
Germany and Brazil retained their respective first and second spots, while Belgium moved up two notches to rank third in FIFA’s rating.
