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Flames static

The Flames have maintained position 123 on world football rankings which Fifa released yesterday and show Belgium still leading the pack for the second year running.

World champions France, who beat  Croatia 4-2 in the 2018 World Cup final in Russia, are second, Brazil third, England fourth and Portugal are fifth just as it was the case last year.

In Russian 2018, Belgium lost to France in the semi-finals.

The list shows that Senegal is ranked 20th in the world, the same position it was in December last year and still number one in Africa.

On the rankings, South Africa have scored highest in southern Africa on position 71, neighbouring Zambia are on position 90, Mozambique on 106 and Zimbabwe are 112 while Magadagascar is in the 100 on 94.

Football Association of Malawi competitions and communications director Gomezgani Zakazaka said the Flames idleness in the past three months contributed to the lack of the movement.

He said: “After three months of inactivity it is not surprising that the team has maintained the same position on Fifa rankings.

“But we hope to do well in our next matches to ensure we continue pushing up as we aim to rise to double digits.”

The Flames coach Meck Mwase also attributed lack of movement to the team’s inactivity.

“Since Fifa released the world rankings last year, we have not played any game. Due to surging numbers of Covid-19 cases we haven’t been involved in any tournament. I think that’s the reason we have been static on world rankings,” he said.

On his part, sports marketing analyst Kevin Moyo said yesterday the ranking is not good for the team.

“It shows that we still have a lot of work to do to be within the top 100. Once in the 100 bracket, our league will begin to get noticed; hence, opening doors for our players to play in top leagues,” he said.

Flames opponents in the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), South Sudan and Uganda, are on position 127 and 83 in that order. Uganda were on position 79 last year while South Sudan were still on 127.

Malawi will play South Sudan away on March 24 2021 and the Cranes of Uganda four days later at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre.

Both games are must-wins for Malawi.

Mwase has named a provisional 29-member squad of home-based players for the forthcoming Afcon pool B next month.

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