By Williams Gondwa & Mphatso Malidadi:
Malawi National Football Team’s poor performance at the Four Nations tournament in Lilongwe last week has resulted into a three-step drop on the Fifa rankings.
The bottom-of-the-table showing has seen the Flames tumbling from position 122 to 125 in the world.
In Africa, Malawi are now the 34th best team, down from 31st.
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So pathetic was the Flames’ performance in the Four Nations tournament that they failed to win in two matches, conceding six goals while scoring one.
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They started with a 4-0 loss to Kenya on March 26 at Bingu National Stadium before losing 2-1 to Zambia in a third place play-off encounter at the same venue on Tuesday last week.
Flames captain John ‘CJ’ Banda described the development as worrisome.
“The two defeats have indeed reflected on the rankings. It was obvious that we would fall due to our poor performance during the tournament as it was played in a Fifa window. We just have to plan well for the World Cup qualifiers in June if things are to get any better,” Banda said.
The Four Nations tournament winners Kenya, who beat Zimbabwe 3-1 in the final, are 24th in Africa.
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Football analyst George Kaudza Masina said the Flames’ fall is not surprising.
“This is something some of us anticipated. Fifa rankings depend more on national teams being active and, more so, winning games. So a team that is not as active and wins fewer matches cannot expect to go up the rankings. The rankings are also dependent on games’ ratings. So the important factor is playing against teams that are above you on the rankings and beating them.
“The challenge with the recent development is that it disadvantages the country and its players as they cannot be marketable on the international market because countries consider rankings before issuing work permits for foreign players. So the best way forward is for Fam [Football Association of Malawi] to start engaging teams with names and respect across the world to strengthen our chances of bouncing back and returning to the top 100 as was the case in the past,” Kaudza Masina said.
According to www.fifa.com, Argentina continue to top the rankings ahead of France and third-placed Belgium, who have returned to the podium at the expense of fourth-placed England having moved a step up.
Senegal remain Africa’s highest ranked team having maintained position 17.
Nigeria have fallen by two steps and are on position 30 as the second highest ranked African team in the world.
