TEHRAN -- Iran’s soccer team has ascended 11 places in the recently released FIFA ranking on Wednesday.

Iran went from 48th to 37th with 689 points, behind Japan with 745 points as the best Asian team. Australia and Saudi Arabia are the third and fourth Asian teams with 668 and 623, respectively.
In the ranking, newly-crowned Euro 2008 Spain topped the table with 1557 points, followed by Italy and Germany, scoring 1404 and 1364, respectively.
Iran qualified for the final round of the 2010 World Cup qualification two weeks ago