WINDHOEK – Namibia’s senior football side, the Brave Warriors, dropped one place on the Fifa world rankings released yesterday, gliding from 116th place to 117.
In June, Namibia which occupies 29th position in Africa on the latest rankings, was rated 116 – which then also symbolised a massive drop from the 107 ranking the country boasted during the April and May world ratings.
The Brave Warriors, which are set to recommence their Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers campaign with a vital encounter against regional rivals Zambia on the 8th of next month at the Sam Nujoma Stadium in Windhoek, have so far played seven matches and managed to record three victories, two draws and two losses from those outings.
Namibia’s best-ever world ranking came in 1998 when the country shot to an amazing 69th place on the Fifa world radar.
In first place on the Fifa world rankings released yesterday is France, who are tailed by Belgium in second place while Brazil are seated third. Croatia is in fourth place.
Topping the African rankings is Tunisia, followed by Senegal in second place and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in third place, while Ghana and Morocco are stationed in 4th and 5th places, respectively.
To break down how the rankings work, the basic logic of the calculations is simple: any team that does well in world football wins points, which enable it to climb the world rankings.
A team’s total number of points over a four-year period is determined by adding the average number of points gained from matches during the past 12 months and the average number of points gained from matches older than 12 months, which depreciates yearly.