Women soccer team up 7 places on Fifa rankings
Despite being inactive for the past 12 months, the Malawi women national football team has moved up seven places on the latest Fifa/Coca-Cola Rankings from 131 to 123.
Malawi last played an international match in November last year against Tanzania which they lost 2-0.
According to the rankings released at the weekend, on the continent Malawi are ranked 22nd while in the Cosafa bloc, they are fifth behind South Africa (51), Zimbabwe (88), Zambia (111) and Namibia (112).
Nigeria (35) are the top ranked team on the continent followed by Ghana (45) and Cameroon (47).
On the world stage, USA remain top while Germany are second followed by France.
National Women Football Association (NWFA) chairperson Severia Chalira described the rise as a boost ahead of Friday’s international friendly match against Zambia’s She-polopolo at Nankhaka ground in Lilongwe.
“I am sure we could have moved up more steps had our friendly matches against Botswana and South Africa materialised, but we still hope to move further up after the Zambia game. We want to be active next year and play as many games as we can,” she said. n
