The Brave Warriors have climbed eight positions in the latest FIFA world rankings, which were released yesterday.

This follows Brave Warriors’ recent stellar performance at the just- concluded 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire, where the Namibians beat the thenvthird-placed Tunisia 1-0 in their first group match of the tournament.

The Brave Warriors went on to lose 4-0 to South Africa before drawing nil-all with Mali, thereby qualifying for the Round of 16.

In the knockout stages, Namibia lost 3-0 to Angola, but that performance against Tunisia and Mali helped the team move from 115th (1168.38 points) to 107th (1195.13 points).

On the African continent, Namibia is now ranked 23rd, down from 27th in the last rankings, which were released in December.

At the regional level (Cosafa), Namibia is now ranked fourth behind South Africa, Zambia and Angola.

South Africa has moved up eight places to number 58, their highest position since 2015. Bafana Bafana has also climbed to 10th place in Africa after a third-place finish at the recent tournament.

Zambia fell three places to number 87th after their Afcon first-round exit in Cote d’Ivoire, while Angola shot up 24 places to number 93rd on the back of their quarterfinal showing.

That makes them the highest climbers of any team in the world, and rewards them for an excellent Afcon performance.

On the African continent, the top five are Morocco, Senegal, Nigeria, Egypt and the newly-crowned African champions, Cote dÍvoire.

Tunisia drops from third to sixth on the continent following their first-round exit, while Algeria, Mali, Cameroon and South Africa make up the rest of the top 10.

On the world stage, Argentina, France, England, Belgium and Brazil are the top-ranked teams, as it was in December.

The rankings are calculated according to the new ranking model, which took effect in August 2018 after approval by the FIFA Council. Teams earn points via ‘SUM’, a method that relies on adding or subtracting points won or lost for a game to or from the previous point totals rather than averaging game points over a given time as in the previous version of the World Ranking.

The points which are added or subtracted are partially determined by the relative strengths of the two opponents, including the logical expectation that teams higher in the ranking should fare better against teams lower in the ranking.