Latest FIFA Rankings: Rwanda Drops To Worst Position In 18 Years

The latest football rankings released by the International Football body FIFA shows that Rwanda-Amavubi has dropped to the worst position in the last eighteen years.

Rwanda gathered 1088 points dropping from 137th to 138th globally among 203 countries ranked by FIFA on Thursday.

The drop follows failure to qualify for the Africa Cup of National Finals (AFCON) scheduled in Egypt in July plus having fewer international football friendly activities between December 2018 and April this year.

The Wasps under head coach Vincent Mashami finished at the bottom of Group H in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers with only two points in two draws from six games. Rwanda lost to Guinea and the Central African Republic before finally ending the campaign in a 3-0 defeat away in Ivory Coast.

Rwanda is two places behind Burundi which is placed 136th worldwide, Burundi’s Swallow in the War team, qualified for their first ever Africa Cup of Nation’s thanks to a 1-1 draw with Gabon, who will not join them in Egypt later this year.

Which means, the Wasps are ranked 38th on the continent. Uganda is the top-ranked nation from the East Africa Committee (EAC) 17th, down 2 places in Africa, 79th globally.

The Cranes qualified for the 32nd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations after topping Group H with 13 points after beatings Cape Verde 1-0 at Namboole stadium in a nervy match that could have gone either way.

They rank Kenya which also qualified for the AFCON 26th on the continent, the Harambee Stars  (161, dropped 2 places globally) in the latest rankings released.

Sudan is ranked 36th on the continental and 130 globally, Tanzania follows Sudan globally five places ahead of Burundi on the global rankings.

The biggest mover in March was Tanzania (131st up 6 slots) after the latter booked their place in Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.

Senegal’s national team, the Teranga Lions, are Africa’s top team. The rankings released on April 4 ranks Senegal 23rd sandwiched between Iran and the United States worldwide. The Lions grossed 1515 points and moved one sport from the last rankings.

Tunisia, Nigeria, and Morocco and the neighbors Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), completed the top five slots for Africa alongside Ghana.

FIFA has revealed while there were 150 games played across the globe during the international period, things remain tight at the top of the world rankings as the top three remained unchanged.

Belgium bosses at the (Ist, unchanged), maintaining a slender lead-growing it marginally to three points over 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia winners France (2nd, unchanged), Brazil (3rd, unchanged).

However, they are looking over their shoulders somewhat as England (4th, up 1) leapfrogged World Cup finalist Croatia (5th, down 1).

Uruguay (6th, up 1 place), is the only other movers within the top ten, Israel (84th, up 8) enjoyed the biggest jump of all, followed by closely by Guatemala (143rd, up 6).FIFA will release the rankings at the end of April 2019.