Namibia’s senior football side, the Brave Warriors, have plunged two places on the latest Fifa world rankings released last week, sliding from 106th to 108th place.
The country, however, remains 25th on the continent.
Back-to-back defeats to Senegal in recent 2022 World Cup qualifiers are likely the cause for the decline.
Belgium top the world ranking, followed by five-time world champions Brazil. Current world champions France are third, while Italy and England are in fourth and fifth places, respectively.
Senegal lead the African ranking, followed by Tunisia in second position and Morocco in third. Algeria and Nigeria are fourth and fifth.
Namibia Football Association (NFA) secretary general Franco Cosmos was not surprised with the warriors slipping, saying it shows they still need to work hard in order to climb the rankings.
“I believe it’s because of the two matches we lost recently in the World Cup qualifiers against Senegal. I believe this contributed massively in us slipping in our rankings.”
“This as well shows how much we need to work as a nation in order to climb in rankings. Our next games against Togo and Congo; we would have to win for us to improve our rankings,” he told New Era Sport.
Namibia’s all-time highest ranking was in 1998 when they were ranked 68th in the world. The lowest ranking was 167th. In February this year, Namibia were ranked 121st.
Meanwhile, Namibia’s Brave Gladiators are ranked 146th for April, June and August, with their best ranking of 89th position achieved in 2009. The Gladiators’ best climb was 10 places between 2019 and 2020, jumping from 139th to 129th place.
The Fifa world ranking procedures rely on adding/subtracting points won or lost for a game to/from the previous point totals rather than averaging game points over a given time period. The points, which are added or subtracted, are partially determined by the relative strength of the two opponents, including the logical expectation that teams higher in the ranking should fare better against teams lower in the ranking.