Zambia slips on the FIFA/Coca-Cola world-ranking

ZAMBIA’S downward spiral on the FIFA/Coca-Cola world-ranking continued yesterday when the Chipolopolo slumped five places in November.
Zambia dropped from 67th to 72nd in the world and slipped one place in Africa to 15th, swapping positions with Guinea.
The recent fall can be attributed to Zambia’s poor showing in international friendly matches with the latest being this month’s 0-2 loss to Egypt.
Africa’s five representatives at the FIFA 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil – Ivory Coast, Ghana, Algeria, Nigeria and Cameroun – are all occupying slots in the continent’s top 10 teams.
South Africa, despite shocking world and European champions, Spain 1-0, remained static on the global chart, sitting in 61st position and 11th in Africa.
However, Spain are still the top-ranked team in the world ahead of Germany, Argentina and Colombia, while Portugal and 2014 World Cup hosts, Brazil returned to the top 10.
According to the latest ratings released from Zurich, Switzerland yesterday, all teams in the top 20, except for Ukraine (18th, up two), have booked their tickets to Brazil next year and just three teams outside of the top 50 have managed to qualify for the 2014 showpiece, namely Cameroon (51st, up eight), Korea Republic (54th, up two) and Australia (59th, down two).

Times of Zambia