Flames up 109 on Fifa rankings
The Flames have risen from position 111 to 109 on this month’s edition of Fifa Coca-Cola ranking, thereby earning a Cosafa Senior Challenge Cup quarter-final berth.
In the rankings released on Fifa website on day, the Flames have maintained the sixth position in the 14-member Cosafa football bloc, courtesy of a 1-0 win against Namibia last month.
Malawi have also maintained position 32 out of 54 ranked African teams.
Zambia, ranked 47th in the world and seventh in Africa, are Cosafa’s number one team.
South Africa are second in Cosafa on position 62 in the world and 11th in Africa.
Angola are rated 94th in the world, 25th in Africa and third in southern Africa whereas Zimbabwe are fourth in the Cosafa region on 101 in the world and 28th on the continent.
Mozambique, where the bulk of the Flames’ foreign contingent ply their trade, are on position 106 in the world, 30th in Africa and fifth in Cosafa.
Ivory Coast, Ghana, Mali, Nigeria, Algeria and Tunisia make up Africa’s top six.
There are 254 rated teams in the world. Djibouti are anchoring the table both in Africa and the world.
The rise should help the Flames’ cause both in Cosafa Senior Challenge Cup and World Cup qualifiers.
Flames caretaker coach Eddington Ng’onamo did not pick his phone, team manager Charles Manda referred questions to the coach whereas Football Association of Malawi chief executive officer Suzgo Nyirenda asked to be called later.
Cosafa chief operations officer Sue Destombes told The Nation last month that the last lowest-ranked eight southern African teams by the time of the draw on May 3 2013, will join the regional football tournament from the preliminary stage. The next rankings will be released on May 9 2013.
The Cosafa Challenge Cup takes place from July 6 to 25 in Zambia.
Fifa website reported yesterday that although the leading trio of Spain, Germany and Argentina remain unchanged at the top of world chart, they are now being pursued by Croatia, who have climbed five places to fourth.
“A total of 120 “A” international matches have been taken into account for the April edition of the Fifa/Coca-Cola World Ranking, the majority of them qualification matches for the 2014 Fifa World Cup Brazil (83 matches) and for the AFC Challenge Cup (20 matches), the remaining 17 matches being friendlies. The total number of matches taken into account so far this year is 275,” reads www.fifa.com.
