Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam)
21 December 2011
TANZANIA has terribly plunged deep to lose grip in FIFA soccer rankings to end the year on position 137, one steps down the ladder.
According to the world football governing body’s latest rankings released in Zurich, Switzerland on Wednesday, Tanzania has paid dearly for its poor performance in the recent concluded CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup, in which it finished as semi-finalists after losing 1-3 to eventual winners Uganda Cranes.
Stars who have fallen one place on their world ranking have also plunged one place on their continental ranking, to land on number 28 on the African continent. November rankings saw Stars going down five placed from 131 to 136.
The team that just three years back enjoyed a double digit status under Brazilian coach Marcio Maximo, face a stiff challenge to romp back into top 100. With 2013 African Nations Cup qualifiers kicking off in February and 2014 World Cup qualifiers also in the line, Stars under Danish coach Jan Poulsen must fight hard to redeem a respectable ranking.
Staying three positions above East Africa lowest ranked nation Burundi, who are on 140 position in the world and 39 in Africa, Stars have been bubbling in triple digit figures throughout since 2009.
Uganda whose national soccer team has been predominant in the CECAFA block, is leading the region after going up two places to 89 in the world and 20th in Africa. Kenya is the most improved regional nation in the latest rankings.
They have dramatically improved in the rankings going up 13 places to 120th position after accumulating 269 points. Rwanda has gone up eight places to 106 in the world and 27 in Africa.
World and European champions Spain remain unchallenged at the top of the table, followed by the Netherlands, Germany and Uruguay, who are all still competing in an exciting head-to-head battle for second place. As the top team at year-end, Spain are the Team of the Year for the fourth year in a row.
The title of Best Mover of the Year is claimed by Wales (48th, up 2) who, with 330 points, won the most points in 2011. The Welshmen find themselves back in the top 50 thanks to their outstanding performances in the second half of the year, with wins over Montenegro, Switzerland and Bulgaria in the EURO 2012 qualifiers.
December saw the following teams achieve their highest position ever since the introduction of the world ranking: Bosnia-Herzegovina (20th, up 3), Panama (49th, up 2), Estonia (57th, up 1) and American Samoa (186th, up 18), who claimed their first-ever win in a World Cup qualifying match.
A comparison with the continental composition of the top 50 in December 2010 reveals various changes: South America (9 teams, up 3), CONCACAF (3, up 1) and Asia (4, up 1) have grown stronger, while Africa (7, down 3) and Europe (27, down 2) have fewer teams in the top 50 than they had a year ago.
The top-ranked teams from each of the confederations are Spain (1st), Uruguay (4th), Côte d’Ivoire (16th), Japan (19th), Mexico (21st) and New Zealand (119th). The results of 57 new ‘A’ international matches have been recognised in the current edition of the FIFA World Ranking, of which 51 were friendly matches and the remaining six were OFC World Cup qualification matches. In total, 1,046 matches were taken into account over the course of the year.
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