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Zebras Slide Down In FIFA Rankings |
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 Consequences - they will play in the COSAFA Preliminaries
The July edition of the Coca-Cola FIFA rankings released recently by the world’s football governing body saw the Zebras dropping five places. This follows the Zebras combination of sterling and poor performances in the ongoing World cup cum Africa cup qualifying matches where they are second placed in the group that include Mozambique, Swaziland and Ivory Coast.
In hot pursuit of their 2010 World Cup and African Cup of Nations qualifiers campaign against Madagascar, Mozambique and Ivory Coast they won, drew and lost some of the games.
The result is that the Zebras will participate in the preliminary games of the up-coming annual Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA Cup). They were expected to go into the quarterfinals but their dreams were shattered because the Flames of Malawi were amongst the biggest movers as they are now ranked 107 in the world and 29 in the continental rankings.
The Zebras will join other countries in the preliminary group stage which include Namibia, Mauritius, Comoros Islands, Lesotho, Madagascar, Swaziland and Seychelles. The Zebras will have to fight tooth and nail to ensure that they are part of the two teams that will join Angola, South Africa, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and to play in the knock out stages slated for July 24 to August 2.
The latest FIFA rankings also saw Zebras competitors in the group 7 of 2010 World Cup and African Cup of Nations qualifiers, Mozambique dropping 19 places, while Côte d'Ivoire are part of the teams heading the continental rankings.
Surprisingly, despite dropping six places to 61 in the world and 11th in the continental rankings, Angola is still leading the pack in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region.
It is also interesting to note that despite a disappointing showing in the 2010 World Cup/African Nations qualifiers, South Africa’s Bafana Bafana, moved a single place up the ladder and are now ranked 67th in the world and 13th in Africa in the latest FIFA rankings.
Cameroon remains the best side on the African continent according to FIFA's world rankings. They retained the top spot as they won two and drew one of their three matches in June. Among the world's top teams, new European champions Spain have grabbed the number one spot for the first time ever.
World Cup holders Italy are ranked second, followed by Germany and Brazil, with Argentina at fourth and the Netherlands fifth.
BY KHONANI ONTEBETSE
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