Flames drop on Fifa rankings

Barely  a month after moving 10 places upwards, Malawi National Football team have slightly dropped from 119 to 120 in the latest Fifa rankings released yesterday.

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) competitions and communications director Gomezgani  Zakazaka yesterday in an interview attributed the drop to inactivity during the just-ended Fifa break.

He said: “The rankings are coming after two weeks of Fifa activity. Almost all nations had one or two games. But as Malawi, we didn’t have any games. We were inactive and that contributed to our low showing.

“Malawi have not been active since taking part in the recent African Cup of Nations in Cameroon.That could be the reason because while other teams have been active in Afcon preliminaries, World Cup qualifiers and international friendlies the Flames have not been doing anything.”

Sports journalist Frank Kandu agreed with Zakazaka, saying the inactivity of the Flames have contributed to the drop on rankings.

The rankings show that Brazil is now the highest-ranked team in the world, displacing Belgium who have dropped to second position while France are on third.

In Africa, Senegal are the number one team on position 20 from 18 in February. Egypt are second on 32 whereas Cameroon are third on the continent on position 37.

Malawi’s movement in the February was attributed to its participation in at the Afcon where the team qualified for the last 16. Since the Afcon tournament which was hosted in Cameroon in January, the Flames have been idle.