LAHORE FIFA has included Pakistan women's football team in its world ranking system on provisional basis, a spokesman of the Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) said here on Thursday.

“Under the dynamic leadership of PFF President Faisal Saleh Hayat, we have worked hard for five years to build up women's football and the appreciation from FIFA means very much to us and will inspire us to do even better,” said Robina Irfan, Chairperson of the PFF Women's Wing.

“The PFF has remained highly active in boosting women's football since 2005. FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) have assured us full support [in this regard].

“And inclusion of our national women's team in FIFA women's world rankings is a great achievement for us and one day we will be able to get title of AFC Association of the Year.”

FIFA women's world rankings were introduced in March 2003. Women's world rankings attempt to evaluate the strength of internationally active teams at any given time.

The provisional FIFA ranking can be changed into official one after the country play at least five matches against teams with official ranking.

Meanwhile, there has been little movement in the latest women's world ranking published on 13 August 2010. The USA remain on top, followed by world and European champions Germany, and Brazil, neither of whom were in action in the past three months. The only change in the top ten is at number 10, with Denmark dislodging China, who now occupy their lowest-ever position in the ranking. This brings the total number of teams in the women's world ranking to 117.

A total of 75 women's 'A' matches have been played, majority of which were qualifying matches for next year's main event, the Women's World Cup Germany 2011.

There are some important distinctions in the FIFA Women's World Rankings formula. Women's world rankings are based on every international match a team ever played, going back to 1971, the first FIFA-recognized women's international between France and the Netherlands. The men's ranking system considers only matches in the last four years.

Women's rankings are not weighted to emphasize recent results, whereas the men's results are weighted on a sliding scale, thus emphasizing recent results. Women's Rankings are published four times a year as compared to monthly Men's Rankings. The next Women's World Ranking will be published on 19 November 2010.