Bafana climb up Fifa rankings despite not playing a match in four months
Image: Steve Haag/BackpagePix
Bafana Bafana have climbed a single place to number 76 in the latest FIFA World Rankings released on Thursday‚ continuing what has been an upward curve in 2018 despite not playing a match in four months.
As the rankings are weighted based on the previous four years‚ past results are also taken into account and these have seen Bafana rise from their position of 81st at the end of 2017.
They are now listed at number 15 in Africa‚ and are one place above Zambia (77th in the world)‚ who they could potentially meet in the four nation tournament hosted by that country later this month.
The other sides in the competition‚ Bafana’s semifinal opponents Angola (141) and Zimbabwe (108) are both some way behind them.
As for South Africa’s opponents in the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers that resume in September‚ Libya remained unchanged in 99th position‚ while Nigeria were likewise unmoved in 52nd.
Seychelles did climb one place to 191st‚ but that is still just a few places off their worst ever position of 196.
Tunisia remain top of the African list‚ followed by Senegal‚ DR Congo‚ Morocco and Egypt.
There was no change to the top five on the global rankings with Germany top‚ followed by Brazil‚ Portugal‚ Argentina and Belgium.