Flames out of top 100
Not shocking. Malawi national football team (Flames) crashed out of the top 100-band following a six-place slip-up from 96 to 102 on April Fifa ranking due to cumulative effects of inactivity and back-to-back defeats.
The world football controlling body, Fifa, released on Wednesday the latest updates that have the Flames climbing down in Africa from 19 last month to 23.
Malawi is fourth in Cosafa, behind leaders Zambia, second-placed South Africa and Angola on third slot but lying fifth, 15th and 18th, respectively, on the continent.
The latest ranking hardly surprised Flames coach Kinnah Phiri on Wednesday considering that his charges do not make the most of Fifa windows for warm-up matches.
“When you are not active that it is always minus. I am hopeful that once we start playing in June, we will gain ground on the ranking. Our downfall should act as a motivation for us to work hard and get back on our feet,” said Kinnah.
In addition to inactivity, Malawi lost their last two matches 3-2 and 1-0 to lowly ranked Chad in February and Tanzania last December in the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations preliminary round qualifiers and the 2011 Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup respectively.
On the revised chart of world teams, reigning Africa kings, the Chipolopolo have gone a step up to 40th in the world, Bafana Bafana are down by 11 steps to 71 and Angola are one up to 78.
The 2012 Africa Cup of Nations finalists, Cote d’Ivoire lead Africa with Ghana breathing on the Elephants’ necks followed by third-placed Mali then Gabon fourth.
“Twenty-four matches were taken into account for the April edition of the Fifa/Coca-Cola World Ranking, three-quarters of which were played at the AFC Challenge Cup,” reads www.fifa.com.
On the world scale, reigning World Cup champions, Spain still top the pack followed by Germany, who have for the first time in many months, displaced the Netherlands to a distant fourth with Uruguay taking up the third slot while Brazil are fifth.
“Libya and El Salvador, the Philippines (148th, up 8) have achieved their highest-ever position since the introduction of the global ladder, thanks to their excellent performance at the AFC Challenge Cup, where they finished third,” reads the Fifa website.
