Tanzania: Stars Maintain Same Position in FIFA Rankings

TANZANIA position in the latest FIFA rankings released yesterday has remained unchanged despite Taifa Stars’ gallant performance away in Uganda in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers campaign.

After sharing the spoils with Uganda Cranes following a barren draw at the Mandela (Namboole) Stadium in Kampala, many soccer fans had expected that Taifa Stars will slightly improve its position in the rankings basing on the kind of the opponent they faced. However, Stars remained settled in the same 140th position globally.

In contrast, the barren draw has affected Uganda, who are the CECAFA region powerhouse after they dropped down by one position from its previous 82nd place to 83rd globally.

Cape Verde Islands, who are Stars next opponents in the race for the ticket to the 2019 AFCON finals in Cameroon, are settled in the 67th position globally after dropping three positions. In their last 2019 AFCON qualifiers match, Cape Verde fought to a 1-1 draw with hosts Lesotho in Maseru.

Lesotho are placed 145 in the world after they climbed a place up and this might be attributed to their recent result against Cape Verde in the group L of the 2019 AFCON qualifiers.

Uganda lead the group with four points, followed by Lesotho and Tanzania, who are tied on two points respectively but separated on goal difference and Cape Verde is settled at the bottom with just one point from two games.

Despite slight fall, Uganda is still at the top of CECAFA region, followed by Kenya (107), Sudan (132), who occupy the second and third positions respectively, while Rwanda (137) is fourth and Tanzania concludes the top five.

Kenya is the only team in the region which has managed to climb up by five positions globally and that is attributed to the Harambee Stars stunning 1-0 win over Ghana’s Black Stars in the AFCON qualifiers group F match, the victory was followed with another 1-0 win over Malawi in a friendly match.

Ghana dropped by six places in the rankings as they are currently settled in the 51st position globally from the previous 45th position in the August 16th rankings.

The biggest leap in terms of points is in Africa, however, with Kenya (107th, up 5) clinching 22 points – 17.9 thanks to a 1-0 win over Ghana (51st, down 6) in CAF Africa Cup of Nations qualifying. As a result of that defeat to Kenya, the Black Stars join Slovenia (61st, down 6), as the biggest fallers of the month.

Other CECAFA region sides which have stepped up in the latest rankings are Ethiopia 149th position after moving up by one place and Djibouti, who moved by one place to 196, whereas Burundi remains in the 148th place.

Tunisia are topping the list in the continent as they are positioned 23rd in the world, followed by Senegal and Congo DR, who are placed 25th and 40th globally respectively and Morocco is positioned 45th are fourth and Nigeria positioned 48th wraps the continental top five.

For the first time ever in the table’s 25 year’s history the world top spot is being shared as Belgium, who climbed to the top of the rankings alongside 2018 FIFA World Cup winners France.

A pair of wins for the Red Devils (1st, up 1), including their first in the UEFA Nations League over Iceland (36th, down 4), has brought them level with Les Bleus (1st, unchanged) on 1,729 points. The next FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking will be published on 25th October 2018.