Flames jump from 106 to 98 on FIFA ranking
The Flames revival continued with yet another big jump from position 106 to 98 out of 205 world national football teams on September Fifa/Coca-Cola ranking updated today—reflecting the 3-2 win over Ethiopia.
Malawi, who rose from 121 in August, are now rated 26th out of 54 Africa teams and fifth in Southern Africa from the list of 14. Group B’s leaders Algeria top Africa, but are placed 20th in the world. South Africa top Southern Africa, while being positioned 67 in the world and 14th in Africa, reads www.fifa.com/worldranking/rankingtable.
Reacting to the ranking, local football consultant Felix Ngamanya Sapao yesterday warned that unless the Flames won in the remaining 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) Group B qualifiers against Mali, Algeria and Ethiopia, they could drop again.
“Currently, our Flames on the ranking will be up and down. Note that we recently beat our weakest opponent in the Afcon qualifiers and that most teams close to our ranking were idle as most didn’t qualify for the qualifiers. That is what reflects the current ranking. We will drop come mid November because we have to play teams with more quality. So, we should expect to be back in the 100’s shortly,” Sapao explained.
Malawi hit its lowest rank 138 in 2008 and its best 63 in 1993. In Africa the least ranked team is Djibouti who are placed 54 whereas Ethiopia are 132 in the world and 39th in Africa. Mali are a step up to 59th in the world and 12th on the continent.
Up the table, reigning Fifa World Cup champions Germany are still number one, trailed by, Argentina who were finalists at the Brazil World Cup. Colombia, Netherlands, Belgium, Brazil, Uruguay, Spain, France and Switzerland make up the top 10. Other countries picked randomly, England also jumped by two positions to 18th in the world.
“Of the 141 international “A” matches taken into account for this month’s ranking, over half of them (80) were continental qualifiers in Europe, Africa and Concacaf, the other 61 fixtures being friendlies. This takes the total number of international “A” matches played in 2014 so far to 526,” reads the Fifa website.
