The unpredictability of Fifa/ Coca-Cola World Ranking Thursday saw the misfiring Flames move a step up to position 103 out of 205 senior national football teams across the globe.
The Flames are positioned fifth out 14 Southern Africa teams and 31st out of 54 in African, according to the revised February ranking which world football controlling body, Fifa, released on its website.
Malawi, who will play against Madagascar next month in the African Nations Championship qualifiers, achieved their best ranking of 67 in 1993 and the worst position was 138 in 2008.
The rankings factor in average results of games played in the past four years and strength/weakness of opposition.
“Any team that does well in world football wins points which enable it to climb the world ranking. A team’s total number of points over a four-year period is determined by adding the average number of points gained from matches during the past 12 months and the average number of points gained from matches older than 12 months (depreciates yearly),” reads www.fifa.com
Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Chile and Belgium occupy the world’s first, second, third, fourth and fifth places, respectively.
Ranked 20th in the world, the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations finalists, Egypt’s Pharaohs are the continent’s number one team followed by Senegal who are second in Africa and 28th in the world.
Reigning Africa kings Cameroon are ranked 32 in the world and third in Africa followed by Democratic Republic of Congo (38th), Nigeria (41st) and Ghana (43rd) and Cote d’Ivoire (47).
Positioned 62nd in the world, South Africa’s Bafana Bafana are Southern Africa’s number one team trailed by Zambia.
South Africa are ranked 14th in Africa, Zambia (23rd), Swaziland (27) and Namibia (28).
The Chipolopolo are on position 90 on the world chart while placed second in the region followed by Swaziland and Namibia who are placed 98th and 99th in the world, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Flames will also play against Morocco and Cameroon in June while competing for a place at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations finals.
To prepare for the Flames, the Atlas Lions will play a warm up against Netherlands at the Willem II Stadium in Tillburg on May 22.
However, the coach for the Flames is yet to be identified and the team last kicked the ball in September 2016.
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