According to the latest FIFA Coca Cola table that the world football governing body released from Switzerland Wednesday afternoo, the senior men’s national team is now ranked 102nd in the world.
The Norman Mapeza-coached team dropped four places down the rankings table. This is the latest setback the team has suffered following a forgettable past year.
During the period, the national team failed to qualify for the African Nations Cup that kickoff in Equatoria Guinea and Gabon on Saturday.
Zimbabwe are now a pale shadow of the side that was ranked in the top 40 at its peak. That was the 1990s era of the Dream Team.
Meanwhile, there were very few changes to 2012’s first edition of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking, as little football was played around the world.
At the summit, world champions Spain continue to lead the way ahead of the Netherlands, Germany and Uruguay, who are still close together in the chasing pack.
Of the top 20 teams, only Chile have been in action recently, their 3-2 victory over Paraguay seeing them overtake Russia and move into 12th place on the global ladder.
Although there was not much movement this month, some teams did still climb into their highest-ever position on the rankings, namely Bosnia-Herzegovina (19th, up 1), Panama(47th, up 2), Estonia (52nd, up 5) and Belize (133rd, up 8). Montenegro (50th, up 1) have also returned to the top 50.
This month’s other successful sides are Uzbekistan (67th, up 8), Zambia (71st, up 8), Saudi Arabia (87th, up 9), Congo DR (116th, up 9) and Nicaragua (145th, up 9), who have all benefited from the devaluation of poor results in previous years to make significant progress up the table.
There will undoubtedly be more movement on February’s Ranking as the 32 matches taking place at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea will be taken into account.
Post published in: Football