Malawi national football team (Flames), who were up against China junior national team on Wednesday as we went to press, remained unmoved on position 102 out of the world’s 201 rated national football teams.
World football controlling body, Fifa, updated the monthly rankings yesterday through its www.fifa.com, giving a fresh indication of the strongest and the weakest football nations across the globe.
Having fallen outside the top 100-bracket last month, Malawi survived a further plunge while remaining 23 in Africa and fourth in the Cosafa football bloc.
Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Algeria, Mali and Zambia are Africa’s five top rated teams whereas on the world chart, they are placed 15, 22, 38, 39 and 40 respectively.
The reigning Africa champions Zambia’s Chipolopolo are the Cosafa’s leading side followed in the region by 68th rated South Africa who are 14th on the continent. Angola are 78 in the world, 18th in Africa and third in southern Africa.
Up the ladder, reigning World Cup kings, Spain still reign supreme followed by Germany, Uruguay, The Netherlands and Portugal respectively making the world top-five bracket.
In calculating the points for the rankings, a win earns three points, one point for a draw and zero for a loss in Fifa sanctioned warm-up matches. The calculations include not only the last game played, but also an aggregate of results in the last 48 months.
The calculation also factors in strength of confederations a team belongs to and opponents’ strength, among others.
“A team’s total number of points over a four-year period is determined by adding: the average number of points gained from matches during the past 12 months; and the average number of points gained from matches older than 12 months (depreciates yearly),” reads Fifa website.
