Malawi National Football Team, the Flames, have hit their second all-time low, falling by 26 places from position 107 to 133 out of 205 ranked world national teams.
The worst ranking in the Flames’ history was 138 registered in November, 2007 when Englishman, Stephen Constantine, was in charge of the team. Position 67 is the Flames’ best ever achieved in December, 1993.
World football controlling body, Fifa, released the rankings for the month of July yesterday to reflect the Flames’ uninspiring displays at the recent Cosafa Castle Cup and also overall impact of results from the European Championship in France.
What it means is that Malawi football has now been relegated to the backwater of the world game with the Flames now positioned ninth out of 14 Southern African national teams and 42nd out of 45 on the continent.
Flames interim coach, Nsanzurwimo Ramadhan, Thursday was candid in his reaction to the latest ranking, saying it was a reflection of the team’s performance “but I have no doubt that very soon we will improve the ranking.”
Moving one place up to 67th in the world, newly-crowned Cosafa Cup kings, South Africa’s Bafana Bafana, are ranked number one in Southern Africa, whereas 32nd ranked Algeria lead Africa.
Summarising the revised rankings, Fifa website indicated that Argentina remain at the summit of the July ranking followed by Belgium, Colombia, Germany (world champions), Chile (Copa America champions) and Portugal (European champions) on position two, three, four, five and six, respectively.
“The impact of three recent major international tournaments – the OFC Nations Cup, Copa America Centenario and Uefa Euro 2016 – is certainly plain to see in a table in which Kosovo are ranked for the first time,” reads www. fifa.com.
“A total of 228 ‘A’ internationals contributed to the new order, with those big events in Oceania, Europe and the Americas especially important in propelling nations upwards.”
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